The Thursday, September 19 game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Miami Marling became the scene of a history-making record for Los Angeles Dodgers star pitcher and designated hitter Shohei Ohtani, who managed to not only have a fantastic day of batting at the game, but set a record for runs and bases.
As to his batting, Ohtani had a perfect performance during the game, batting an incredible 6 for 6. His first hit during the game was an RBI single, which occurred during the first inning. Then, in the third, he managed a two-RBI double. Then, incredibly, Ohtani hit three home runs in his next three at bats.
That’s not all. He also managed to steal two bases during the game, making him into the ranks of record-setting baseball players. That record was that he is the first ball player in the major leagues to manage to both hit fifty home runs and steal fifty bases in the course of a single season, something he has now done.
It was Ohtani’s second home run of the game that saw him set the amazing record. As might be expected, Dodgers play-by-play broadcaster Joe Davis went wild with ecstatic celebration when Ohtani set the record, cheering, as the ball flew other the wall of the left field, that Ohtani had started a whole new club to which MLB stars can aspire.
Davis shouted excitedly, as the record-setting ball flew out of the field and the new record became a reality, “Triple for the cycle, homer for history. On a 1-2, Ohtani… sends one in the air, the other way, back it goes, goooooonnnee! One of a kind player! One of a kind season! Shohei Ohtani starts the 50/50 Club!”
Watch that here:
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Then, as Ohtani knocked his third homer out of the park, Davis exclaimed, “Oh my gosh! Shohei Ohtani! The greatest day in baseball history! This is not real life. He is not human.” He added, “There’s the cliché that you never know what you’re gonna see when you go to the park. You gotta change that cliché from now on. There’s one thing you know you’ll never see- what you saw today.”
Ohtani, after the game, said, quite humbly given the circumstances, that he doesn’t really know from where his outstanding performance came but that he’s glad it went so well. He said, “To be honest, I’m the one probably most surprised. I have no idea where this came from but I’m glad that I performed well today.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video