Ohtani crushes three homers, steals two bases to establish 50-50 club originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Shohei Ohtani is the official founder of the 50-50 club.
Ohtani on Thursday became the first ever Major League Baseball player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in the same season, reaching the feat against the Miami Marlins at loanDepot Park.
It was Ohtani’s second home run of the game, giving Los Angeles a 14-3 lead in the top of the seventh. Ohtani, at that point, was 5-for-5 at the plate with seven RBIs in the historic performance.
But Ohtani wasn’t done. He came up in the top of the ninth inning and hit his third home run of the game — No. 51 on the season — off position player Vidal Brujan.
Ohtani, who entered the game with 48 homers and 49 stolen bases, finished the Dodgers’ 20-4 win 6-for-6 with three homers, 10 RBI and two stolen bases.
Prior to the Los Angeles Dodgers star reaching 50-50, the closest a player came to making history was Atlanta Braves star Ronald Acuna Jr. Acuna Jr. in the 2023 campaign stole a whopping 73 bases, but fell short with home runs at 41 as he won the NL MVP award.
With Ohtani’s record-setting numbers, it’s likely to assume similar individual honors are headed his way.
Along with Ohtani and Acuna Jr., there are four other players in the 40-40 club: Jose Canseco, Oakland Athletics (1988), Barry Bonds, San Francisco Giants (1996), Alex Rodriguez, Seattle Mariners (1998) and Alfonso Soriano, Washington Nationals (2006).
The 30-year-old Ohtani is also a sole member of a different statistical category, as he’s the only player in the history of the NL or AL to log 30 homers and 10 wins on the mound in a single season (2022), as well as 30 homers and 100 strikeouts (2021).
Ohtani, operating in a designated hitting role this season due to an elbow injury, is expected to return to the mound to pitch in the 2025 campaign.
In the 2023 season with the Los Angeles Angels, Ohtani posted an ERA of 3.14 with a 10-5 record through 132 innings pitched.
The Japanese star will attempt to return to his two-way dominance once he’s cleared to throw regularly, but for now, all eyes are on his hitting and baserunning prowess.
Source Agencies
