MIAMI — Shohei Ohtani remained stoic as he rounded the bases in the ninth inning Thursday, coming off another prodigious home run that merely added to what had already been one of the most memorable performances in baseball history. But he collapsed moments later, as he made his way through the usual parade of high-fives in the dugout. He smiled sheepishly, gritted his teeth, slumped his shoulders rhythmically, as if to convey awe — embarrassment, even — at his relentless dominance.
That homer, off a position player inserted into a game that was completely out of control, was his third of the night and 51st of the season. It drove in his 10th run, a Los Angeles Dodgers record. And it provided an emphatic conclusion to a game in which Ohtani became the first player with a 50/50 record in baseball history while securing his first trip to the major league postseason.
Twenty-seven days ago, Ohtani reached the 40/40 club with a walk-off grand slam. Then he set a new milestone, on his way to becoming the first full-time designated hitter to win an MVP, with a six-hit, three-homer, two-steal performance amid the Dodgers’ 20-4 rout of the Miami Marlins. A Dodgers team that has spent an entire summer praising Ohtani’s exploits is running out of ways to explain them.
“I almost cried, to be honest,” veteran shortstop Miguel Rojas said. “It was a lot of emotion, because of everything that goes on behind the scenes that we get to witness every day. It's a really nice moment. We all know what he's capable of, but for him to reach that milestone is pretty amazing.”
Ohtani began the Dodgers’ seven-game road trip 50/50 with three homers and two stolen bases, then added just one homer and one steal over the next six. As the series finale rolled around from loanDepot Park on Thursday, it seemed like a safe bet that Ohtani’s milestone would wait until the Dodgers returned home. But Ohtani led off with a line-drive double off the right-center field wall, then earned his 50th steal by getting his foot under Marlins third baseman Connor Norby’s bunt.
A second-inning single was followed by the steal of base number 51. Ohtani then added a two-run double in the third, before being thrown out while trying to stretch it into a triple, and followed with a 438-foot home run into the second deck of LoanDepot Park in the sixth for his 49th homer. When he came up to bat again in the seventh, the Dodgers had runners on second and third with two outs. First base was open, and Dodgers players began looking toward the opposing dugout to see if the Marlins would intentionally walk Ohtani.
“Fuck that,” a cameraman told Marlins manager Skip Shumaker in his dugout. “I have too much respect for this guy for something like that to happen.”
Ohtani connected on a pair of powerful shots, but then refocused. The count was 1-2 when Marlins right-hander Mike Baumann used his knuckleball for the second straight time, leaving it near the middle of the strike zone. Ohtani stayed back and launched the pitch into the Recess Sports Lounge, located just beyond the left-center field fence, 391 feet away, for home run No. 50, setting a new career high.
“For him to know he's right on the edge of history,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said, “and to somehow stay within a pitch and hit a line drive to left-center field and not try to overextend himself, you know he's thinking about hitting a home run, and he hits it 111 mph on a line drive the other way. It's just incredible.”
The fan who secured the ball walked out of the stadium with it in his hand, denying Ohtani a well-deserved souvenir, but not the joy it brought him. Ohtani roared as he stepped out of the batter's box, emphatically high-fiving first-base coach Clayton McCullough as he made the turn. Afterward, while speaking through an interpreter, he said he was “happy” and “relieved” to finally have achieved the 50/50 milestone.
“I think it just felt good, it felt sexy and I knew I was going to do this today,” fellow Dodgers superstar Mookie Betts said. “I mean, I could have hit four home runs today. I'm speechless.”
A crowd of 15,548 was on hand to witness Ohtani's historic feat and gave him a standing ovation, prompting him to emerge from the dugout for the curtain call. Ohtani waved to the fans, the pitcher who gave up the homer and then to the Marlins dugout, including Shumaker, who didn't want to get in the way of history.
“I think it's a bad decision, from a baseball standpoint, from a karma standpoint and from the baseball gods,” Shumaker said of the idea of intentionally walking Ohtani. “You have to go after him and see if you can get him out. I think out of respect for the game we were going to go after him. He hit the home run. That's part of the deal. He's hit 50 of them. He's the most talented player I've ever seen. He's doing things I've never seen before in the game, and if he has a couple more years at this level, he could be the greatest player of all time.”
Shortly after the game, the Dodgers boarded a flight home to prepare for a weekend series against the Colorado Rockies. Their postgame celebration was limited to a champagne toast. Dave Roberts acknowledged that they had clinched a playoff spot, but reminded them that the goal was to reclaim the NL West, where they have a four-game lead over the San Diego Padres, and ultimately win the World Series.
He also praised Ohtani, both for reaching his first postseason — he has played 866 career regular-season games without making the playoffs, the most among active players — and for doing what no other player had done before. Many in the room wore commemorative black 50/50 T-shirts that had been printed in advance.
“To be honest,” Ohtani later said, “it was something I wanted to get over as soon as possible because the balls were being exchanged every time I was up to bat.”
Ohtani became the first player in history with three homers and two stolen bases in the same game, according to ESPN Stats & Information. He is the second player since at least 1901 with six hits in a game, including five extra-base hits, joining another Dodger, Shawn Green, who homered four times in 2002. He is also the first player since RBIs became official in 1920 with 10 RBIs and five extra-base hits in the same game and just the sixth to rack up 17 total bases.
“This has to be the greatest baseball game of all time,” Dodgers second baseman Gavin Lux said. “It has to be. There's no way. It's ridiculous. I've never seen anybody do that even in the minor leagues, so it's crazy that he's doing it at the highest level.”
The win was cemented in the top of the ninth, when the Dodgers already held an 11-run lead. The Marlins called up Vidal Brujan, a 26-year-old super-utility player, and watched him throw 70 mph pitches in an effort to get them to the end of the game. When Ohtani came up to bat again, one of his best friends on the team, Teoscar Hernandez, implored him to hit the ball into the right-center field gap to secure a cycle.
“He said to hit a triple,” Ohtani said, speaking in English from the nearby locker room.
“Instead, the ball went to the top of the field,” Hernandez said of a ball that eventually traveled 440 feet at 114 mph. “That's why we're not friends anymore.”
