Hi friends-
When I wrote about Shohei Ohtani potentially pitching in the playoffs yesterday, I did not realize that in mere hours Ohtani would go on to play one of the single greatest games in major league history. So now we are doing an Ohtani newsletter two days in a row (sorry to Giants, Blue Jays, and Angels fans).
In cased you missed it, Ohtani became the first player ever to hit 50 homers and steal 50 bases In a season. But that’s not all he did yesterday! He actually hit three (3) homers, to bring his total to 51, and stole two (2) bases—to lift that number to 51 as well.
Ohtani finished the day going 6-for-6 with three homers, two doubles, two steals, and 10 RBI. His 51 homers broke the Dodgers’ single season franchise record held by Shawn Green (49). His 10 RBI also broke the single game franchise record.
Ohtani also became the first player ever to hit three homers and steal multiple bases in a game In MLB history, and the first player ever to collect five extra base hits and steal multiple bases in a game.
And he did all this in a victory that helped his Dodgers clinch a playoff berth by beating the Marlins 20-4. Here’s the great Sarah Langs of MLB.com on why that last part is so sweet for Ohtani:
That situation was of special interest to Ohtani, who entered the day having played 865 MLB games, the most among all players on an active roster or injured list to have never played in the postseason. That just makes his output on this day, of all days, even more incredible. This is why baseball is the best.
Let’s all just pause for a minute and read that last part again. Shohei Ohtani, the greatest baseball player who ever lived, is the active player with the most games played without ever sniffing the postseason.
The first half of his career was wasted by the Angels’ ineptitude. Let’s hope the second half of his career features many moments like what we saw yesterday.
There are many videos of the home run Ohtani hit to create the 50/50 club yesterday, but I think this one with just crowd noise and no announcers narrating is the best:
I love hearing how loud those long-suffering Miami baseball fans got in celebration of the sport’s equivalent of the moon landing. I love how the normally stoic Ohtani jumped and screamed at the Dodger dugout after he knew he’d done it. I love how he did a curtain call with a classy wave and bow not only to the Dodger fans sitting behind his dugout but also to Marlin fans scattered throughout the stadium as well. And I also love how he did this in the same building where he struck out Mike Trout to win the WBC for Japan last year.
I love how Ohtani came up with first base open and some were wondering if Marlins’ skipper Skip Schumaker would intentionally walk him. “F—k that,” Schumaker was shown on camera saying. “I’ve got too much respect for this guy for that s—t to happen.” (This is just many reasons why Schumaker is one of my favorite athletes I’ve ever covered.)
The vibes, as they say, were immaculate.
This is a reader supported, ad-free, independent newsletter. The best way to support me and my work is by taking out a paid subscription now:
After the game, Ohtani was asked how he felt about breaking the 50/50 barrier. “I’m happy, relieved, and very respectful to the peers and everybody who came before who played this sport of baseball,” he said. “I wanted to get it over as soon as possible because the balls were getting exchanged every time I was up to bat, so I wanted to get it over.”
It actually did look like Ohtani was pressing a little bit lately, trying to pull homers to get this over with. Ohtani purists will know that when he’s right he crushes balls to all fields. I actually thought Ohtani’s biggest hit yesterday was the bases clearing double he hit the other way in the third. He was barely thrown out trying to sneak a triple. Had he done that, he would have hit for the cycle on top of everything else, and there would be no question this was the greatest baseball game a major league hitter ever had.
That double was so big because in going the other way, Ohtani seemed to unlock a little hitch in his approach that he’d complained made him feel a bit off lately. It’s much harder to hit homers when you’re trying to. I think Ohtani locked in and just focused on hitting the ball as hard as he could. He then homered in his next three at-bats.
And as a baseball dork, I’m thrilled the dinger that will be showed until the end of time went oppo, because that’s who he is. I mean, my God, the strength to reach out and do this:
I feel a little silly that I teared up and got goosebumps the second that ball left the bat. But as I write this 24 hours later I realize why. I’ve watched and thought about baseball all day, every day, since I was eight years old. Many of us are inflicted with this sickness. When I became an adult I made writing about baseball my career.
But I actually have a degree in biology. In some other universe, I’d be traipsing around the Galapagos looking for plants and animals found nowhere else in the world. And maybe if I got lucky, there would be one day in my career where I’d discover something that no one had ever seen before. Surely, I’d scream and tear up and experience full body chills. It would mean the world to me because to me, it is the world.
I guess I grew up to be a baseball scientist. And like the rest of you, yesterday I witnessed something that no one on Earth has ever seen before. Yesterday made all the years of suffering through boring, frustrating, and infuriating games worth it.
The coolest part is that somewhere on some far corner of this planet, some eight-year-old kid saw it too and now dreams he can go 50/50.
And maybe he will. Nobody thought running a mile in under four minutes was humanly possible until Roger Bannister did it on May 6, 1954. Now it happens every day.
Like Bannister, Ohtani has shattered the limits of our conventional thinking about what humans are capable of. I feel so lucky I was alive to see it.
Paid subscribers are talking baseball with me right now in the Substack chat app through the conclusion of tonight’s games. Come join us!
I teared up because I lived long enough to see a Dodgers player hit 50 home runs
OK, good to know I wasn't the only one tearing up.