Ohtani breaks 50/50 barrier with 'greatest' game

MIAMI — Shohei Ohtani remained stoic as he rounded the bases in Thursday’s ninth inning, after another prodigious home run that merely piled on to what had already been one of the most memorable performances in baseball history. But he cracked moments later, while making his way through the usual parade of dugout high-fives. He smiled sheepishly, gritted his teeth, rhythmically shrugged his shoulders, as if to convey amazement — embarrassment, even — by his unrelenting dominance.

That home run, off a position player inserted into a game that was thoroughly out of hand, 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 that saw Ohtani become the first 50/50 player in baseball history while clinching his first trip to Major League Baseball’s postseason.

“To be honest, I’m the one probably most surprised,” Ohtani said through an interpreter in a television interview. “I have no idea where this came from, but I’m glad that I performed well today.”

Twenty-seven days ago, Ohtani reached the 40/40 club with a walk-off grand slam. He then set a new benchmark, while on his way to potentially 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 with you,” veteran shortstop Miguel Rojas said. “It was a lot of emotion, because of everything that happens behind the scenes that we get to witness every single day. It’s a pretty cool moment. We all know what he’s capable of doing, but for him to reach that mark — it’s pretty amazing.”

Ohtani began the Dodgers’ seven-game trip three home runs and two stolen bases away from 50/50, then added only one homer and one steal over the first six. When the series finale from LoanDepot Park arrived Thursday, it seemed a safe bet Ohtani’s milestone would wait until the Dodgers returned home. But Ohtani opened with a line-drive double off the wall in right-center field, then picked up his 50th steal by sneaking his foot underneath a tag by Marlins third baseman Connor Norby.

A second-inning single was followed by stolen base No. 51. Ohtani then added a two-run double in the third — before being thrown out trying to stretch it to a triple — and followed with a 438-foot home run into the second deck in the sixth for his 49th home run. When he came 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 to look into the opposing dugout to see if the Marlins would intentionally walk Ohtani.

“F— that,” a television camera showed Marlins manager Skip Schumaker saying in his dugout. “I’ve got too much respect for this guy for that s— to happen.”

Ohtani took a couple of mighty hacks, but then he locked back in. The count was 1-2 when Marlins right-hander Mike Baumann went to his knuckle-curve for the second straight time, leaving it near the middle of the strike zone. Ohtani stayed back and dumped the offering into the Recess Sports Lounge located just beyond the left-center-field fence, 391 feet away, for home run No. 50, setting a career high and a Dodgers record.

“For him knowing that he’s right there on the edge of history,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said, “and to somehow stay inside a pitch and hit it on a line to left-center and not try to get too big — you know he’s thinking about hitting a home run, and he hits it 111 mph on a line the other way. It’s just incredible.”

The fan who secured the baseball left the ballpark with it in hand, denying Ohtani a well-earned piece of memorabilia but not of the joy it brought him. Ohtani roared as he left the batter’s box, emphatically slapping hands with first base coach Clayton McCullough as he made the turn. Afterward, he said he was “happy” and “relieved” to finally reach the 50/50 milestone.

“I think he was just feeling good, feeling sexy and just knew, like, ‘I’m about to do this today,'” fellow Dodgers superstar Mookie Betts said. “I mean, he could’ve had four homers today. I’m at a loss for words.”

A crowd of 15,548 was on hand to witness Ohtani’s historic feat and serenaded him with a standing ovation, prompting him to spill out of the dugout for a curtain call. Ohtani acknowledged the fans, the pitcher who served up the home run and then the Marlins’ dugout — including Schumaker, who didn’t want to get in the way of history.

“I think that’s a bad move — baseball-wise, karma-wise, baseball-gods-wise,” Schumaker said of intentionally walking Ohtani. “You 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 just part of the deal. He’s hit 50 of them. He’s the most talented player I’ve ever seen. He is doing things I’ve never seen done in the game before, and if he has another couple more of these peak years he might be the best ever to play the game.”

Shortly after the game, the Dodgers boarded a flight home to prepare for a weekend series against the Colorado Rockies. Their postgame celebration was confined to a champagne toast. Manager Dave Roberts acknowledged they had clinched a playoff spot but reminded them the goal was to once again take the National League West — where they hold a four-game lead on the San Diego Padres — and ultimately win the World Series.

He also praised Ohtani, both for making it to his first postseason — he has played in 866 career regular-season games without reaching the playoffs, the most among active players — and for doing what no player had ever done. Many of those in the room wore black, commemorative 50/50 T-shirts that had been printed in advance.

“If I’m being honest,” Ohtani said later, “it was something I wanted to get over [with] as soon as possible because the balls were being exchanged every time I was up to bat.”

Ohtani became the first player with three home runs and two stolen bases in the same game, according to ESPN Research. He’s the second player since at least 1901 with six hits in a game, including five for extra bases — joining another Dodger, Shawn Green, who homered four times in 2002. He’s also the first player since RBIs became official in 1920 with 10 RBIs and five extra-base hits in the same game and only the seventh to amass 17 total bases.

“That 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 little leagues, so it’s crazy that he’s doing that at the highest level.”

It was solidified in the top of the ninth, with the Dodgers already leading by 11 runs. The Marlins summoned Vidal Brujan, a 26-year-old super-utility player, and watched him lob 70 mph pitches in an effort to get them to the end of the game. As Ohtani came 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, speaking in English, clarified from the neighboring locker.

“Instead he hit it upper deck,” Hernandez said of a ball that ultimately traveled 440 feet at 114 mph. “That’s why we’re not friends anymore.”