Shohei Ohtani achieved the never-before-seen 50-50 season on Sept. 19, with 50 home runs and 50 steals in the same season. Then he reached the 51-51 club in the same game while helping his team clinch the first playoff berth of his career.
Even with history achieved, Ohtani hasn’t slowed down. He hit two more homers and stole four more bases in the Dodgers’ weekend series against the Colorado Rockies. On Tuesday, he didn’t add to either total, but he did lead off the first inning with a ground-rule double.
That double, in addition to continuing a scorching hot streak, pushed Ohtani’s extra-base hit total to 95 on the season, breaking Babe Herman’s 94-year-old Dodgers single-season record.
Ohtani scored on the next at-bat, but that was all the production the Dodgers would get until the ninth inning in a 4-2 loss against the San Diego Padres. who now trail L.A. by two games in the NL West. After this three-game series, the Dodgers will finish their season against the Colorado Rockies in the offensively friendly confines of Coors Field.
What is Shohei Ohtani on pace for?
With only a few games left in the season, Ohtani doesn’t have much time to push his numbers into even more ludicrous territory, but he’ll be trying.
With 53 homers, 55 steals and five games remaining after Tuesday, Ohtani is on pace to finish the season with 55 homers and 57 stolen bases. Just one more game without a homer, though, and he’ll fall off the pace for the next shiny number: a 55-55 season.
Ohtani reached 50-50 in spectacular fashion
Ohtani didn’t just achieve 50-50 on Sept. 19, he burst through the walls of the newfound club like the Kool-Aid Man with one of the best offensive games in MLB history. His total line: 6-for-6, three homers, two stolen bases, two doubles, four runs and 10 RBI.
It was the first three-homer, two-steal game and the 16th 10-RBI game in MLB history. If there are any better single-game performances, they featured four homers.
The final piece of the 50-50 puzzle came in the seventh inning of that game against the Miami Marlins, off reliever Mike Baumann.
SHOHEI OHTANI HAS DONE IT
50 HOME RUNS | 50 STOLEN BASES
HISTORY pic.twitter.com/GRVJUCbpja
— MLB (@MLB) September 19, 2024
Ohtani had reached the half-century mark in steals early in the first inning, stealing third after opening the game with a double, then added his 51st steal in the second inning after an RBI single. His lone out of the game came on his next at-bat in the third, when his ball fell just short of a homer and he was thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple.
Had the ball gone further, it would have been a four-homer game. Had Ohtani been a bit faster, it would have been a cycle.
Ohtani’s next three at-bats all resulted in homers, with the exclamation point arriving in the ninth inning against position-player pitcher Vidal Brujan.
Shohei Ohtani’s history-making goes beyond 50-50
In addition to creating the 50-50 club, Ohtani has done more than enough to make his first season with the Dodgers worth remembering.
As far as reaching certain numbers in home runs and stolen bases goes, Ohtani has journeyed deep into uncharted territory. In August, he became the sixth player to ever reach 40-40 — joining Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodríguez, Alfonso Soriano and Ronald Acuña Jr. — and he did so in record time. The earliest any of those players had reached both thresholds was Soriano on Sept. 16, 2006.
And Ohtani’s 40th homer was a special one: a walk-off grand slam.
Rodriguez previously held the record for most in both categories, with 42 homers and 46 stolen bases in 1998. Ohtani matched that 42-42 season on his bobblehead night on Aug. 28 and surpassed it two days later on Aug. 30.
Ohtani’s home run count surpasses his previous career high of 46 set in 2021, his first MVP year, and he has shattered his previous best in steals (26, also in 2021). He currently leads the NL in homers and ranks behind only Elly De La Cruz in steals.
The Sept. 19 game was Ohtani’s 13th game of the season with at least one homer and one steal, which tied him with Rickey Henderson in 1986 for the most in MLB history, according to The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya. Ohtani took sole possession of the record a day later, when he hit home run No. 52 and stole base No. 52.
Ohtani’s 50th homer also broke the Dodgers’ single season homer record, previously held by Shawn Green with 49 in 2001.
And, of course, Ohtani set records for both size of contract ($700 million) and deferred contract money ($680 million) when he signed with the Dodgers before this season.
Ohtani has built his career on being unprecedented. Even in a season in which he isn’t able to pitch, having undergone UCL surgery at the end of 2023, he is still doing things MLB has never seen.
