The Legend Of Shohei Ohtani Grows After Greatest Game In MLB History
Shohei Ohtani accomplished much more than becoming major league baseball's first 50/50 player with his performance Thursday night, a stunning achievement in itself.
Ohtani, the National League MVP-in-waiting, had what fairly could be called the best offensive game in MLB history in the Dodgers' 20-4 win at Miami. No hyperbole added.
The numbers speak. Ohtani was 6-for-6 with three home runs, two doubles, 10 RBIs and two stolen bases. His 17 total bases and 10 RBIs are the most ever for leadoff hitter in one game.
With all that, he became the 50-homer, 50-stolen base player in history a year after Atlanta's Ronald Acuna became the first to a 40/70 season.
Ohtani is in his first season with the Dodgers after signing a 10-year, $700 million free agent contract, and the Dodgers' return on investment has been immediate for a deal that because of deferrals will pay him a $2 million salary this season. He sits at 51/51 entering Friday games.
Since RBIs became an official statistic in 1920, only one major league player has had a game over the course of his career with that included at least 10 RBIs, six hits, five extra-base hits, three homers and two stolen bases, according to OPTA stats.
That was Ohtani.
He did it in the one game.
"This game has been around for a long time," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "And to do something that's never been done ... he's one of one."
Roberts knows a little about the lore of the game. He owns a small piece of it — his steal of second base in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the 2004 American League Championship Series helped the Boston Red Sox to a 6-4, 12-inning victory over the New York Yankees.
From there, the Red Sox went on to win the final three games of the series to become the first team in MLB history to overcome a 3-0 deficit in the playoffs. They beat St. Louis in the World Series.
The 50/50 speculation surrounding Ohtani had built over the past few weeks as he closed in the numbers that should guarantee his third MVP award, his first in the National League after winning two with the cross-town Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2021 and 2023. He would join Frank Robinson as the only player to win the award in both leagues.
"If I'm being honest, it was something I wanted to get over as soon as possible," Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. "Just happy, relieved and very respectful to the peers and everybody that came before."
It hard to tell that Ohtani has spent the season rehabbing from a second Tommy John right elbow surgery in September, 2023, that has kept him off the mound this season.
For all that, Ohtani's night could have been more legendary.
Ohtani was only a few feet from both four-homer game and a cycle Thursday. He lined a double high off the right-center field fence in the first inning, just missing a homer. His liner to the left-center field gap rolled to the fence in the third inning, but he just thrown out on a close play at third attempting to stretch it to a triple.
"I think he was just feeling good, feeling sexy and just knew, like, 'I'm about to do this today,'" said Dodgers' right fielder Mookie Betts, who was the AL MVP with Boston in 2018.
"I mean, he could've had four homers today. I'm at a loss for words."
There have 16 four-homer games in modern (since 1900) major league history, including by Hall of Famers Lou Gehrig, Chuck Klein, Gil Hodges, Willie Mays and Mike Schmidt.
None had the across-the-board significance of Ohtani's.
Former Dodger Shawn Green might be the closest. Green who held the Dodgers' season home run record at 49 until Thursday, also was 6-for-6 in his four-homer game in a 16-3 victory over Milwaukee on May 23, 2002. He had seven RBIs and 19 total bases.
Schmidt had had five hits, four homers, and eight RBIs in an 18-16 victory over the Chicago Cubs at windy Wrigley Field on April 17, 1976.
But none of the 16 players had a stolen base in his four-homer game.
Green called Ohtani the "greatest player who ever lived.
"If you're going lose a record, you want it to be to a great player," he said."And the fact that he did it in such historic fashion may be even better. To get to 50-50, that's not a Dodgers thing, that's an unprecedented major league baseball milestone.
"There aren't enough adjectives to describe how amazing he's been throughout his career, but especially this first season with the Dodgers, with all the pressure coming over. It's really mind-boggling what he's been able to do."
Ohtani leads the NL in homers and RBIs (120), second in the majors to the New York Yankees' Aaron Judge (53, 136) in both categories. Ohtani is second in the majors in stolen bases to Cincinnati's Elly De La Cruz (64).
Miami manager Skip Schumaker was shown on camera saying, "(Expletive) that, I've got way to much respect for the guy," when someone in the Marlins' dugout suggested intentionally walking Ohtani late in the game, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"That's a bad move baseball-wise, karma-wise, baseball gods-wise," Schumacher said afterward. "You go after him and see if you can get him out."
On Thursday night, no one could.
