Shohei Ohtani has formally inserted himself into the baseball historical past books and can rewrite them with every residence run and stolen base from right here on out.
With Ohtani’s eighth-inning residence run towards the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday, he grew to become the primary Main League Baseball participant with 43 residence runs and 43 stolen bases in the identical season. He hit residence run No. 44 to steer off Saturday evening’s sport.
His month of August was additionally one-of-a-kind.
In response to a social media put up on X (previously Twitter) by OptaSTATS, Ohtani hit 12 residence runs and likewise stole 15 bases with out being caught.
“No different participant in MLB historical past has had each a 12-plus homer month and a month going 15-for-15 or higher on steals over the course of his whole profession (not to mention in the identical month).”
Ohtani and the capped off the month of August with fireworks. Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman began Saturday’s sport in Arizona with three consecutive solo residence runs — giving the their first back-to-back-to-back homers to steer off a sport in franchise historical past. The additionally had a 3-0 lead earlier than an out was recorded.
Los Angeles took the lead for good within the prime of the ninth after singles from Will Smith and Gavin Lux, and a sacrifice bunt from Kiké Hernández. With runners on second and third, Tommy Edman dumped a single into proper to usher in two go-ahead runs.
“It was wonderful,” stated Edman, who entered the sport as a pinch-hitter for Kiermaier within the sixth. “First form of massive hit I’ve had with this staff.”
With the win and a San Diego Padres loss, the have a six-game lead within the division. It was fairly a strategy to finish the month.
Ohtani’s unimaginable month additionally noticed him be a part of Willie Mays (Sept. 1956) as the one two members on the checklist of gamers who led their league in homers and stolen bases over a calendar month within the final 68 years:
Ohtani has been extremely constant this season, logging an OPS of at the very least .850 in each month. On a staff whose lineup and pitching employees has fluctuated typically due to accidents and inconsistency, that stands out.
The can’t wait to see the September and October variations of their $700 million man.
Picture Credit score: Owen Ziliak/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK
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