MIAMI.- Japanese Shohei Ohtani became the first player to hit 50 homers and 50 steals in a single season on Thursday, hitting two homers and committing two steals in a game against the Marlins in Miami.
Ohtani made it 50-50 in MLB with a seventh-inning homer in the Dodgers’ game against the Miami Marlins. His second homer of the game marked his 50th of the season, after two stolen bases in the same game brought his tally to 51 this season.
The Japanese star hit his 50th homer in the seventh inning, a shot to left field that drove in two runs off reliever Mike Baumann. An inning earlier he had hit his 49th homer, finding a 1-1 slider from Dominican George Soriano and catapulting the ball 438 feet from the plate, to deposit it in the second deck of the bleachers between right field and center field.
It’s the 13th time this season that Ohtani has hit at least one homer and stolen one or more bases in the same game, tying him with Rickey Henderson for the most in a season in major league history.
In the steals department, Ohtani reached the magic number earlier. He recorded his 50th steal in the first inning and his 51st in the second.
Ohtani led off the game with a double off Dominican Edward Cabrera, and went to third base on a double steal along with Freddie Freeman, who reached on a walk.
With his 50th stolen base of the year, Ohtani surpassed manager Dave Roberts for the second-most by a Japanese-born player in major league history.
With his two stolen bases on Thursday, Ohtani has now stolen 28 consecutive bases without being caught, although he was caught at first base once during that same span.
After the historic feat, the Japanese hit another home run (51) and went 6-6 with 10 RBIs, another record but this one in the personal arena. The game ended 20-4 in favor of the Dodgers.
