Shohei Ohtani Joins 40/40 Club in Style

For the past few weeks, it seemed inevitable that Dodgers’ superstar Shohei Ohtani would become just the sixth player in Major League Baseball history to join the 40-homer/40-stolen base club. It also seemed a foregone conclusion that the dynamic 30-year-old slugger would be the quickest member of the club to reach those illustrious milestones.

It wasn’t just that he accomplished that feat in Friday night’s victory over the Rays, but how he did so that was so remarkable. Not only is Shohei Ohtani the best all-around player in Major League Baseball right now, but you can make a very strong argument that he’s the best player to ever play the game.

40th Stolen Base

The two-time American League MVP got the stolen base half of the equation out of the way first. He led off the fourth inning with an infield single off of Rays’ southpaw Tyler Alexander. After Mookie Betts filed out to right field, Ohtani deftly nabbed second base, reaching the 40-steal plateau for the first time in his marvelous career.

That put him on the precipice of that insanely hard-to-reach milestone. Now what would be the most dramatic way possible to achieve it? I don’t know, maybe a walk-off grand slam with two outs in the ninth inning?

Shohei Ohtani 40th Home Run

Photo bySteve DiMatteoonUnsplash

Ohtani strolled to the dish in the home half of the ninth inning with the bases loaded and two outs in a 3-3 ballgame. He then clobbered the first pitch that he saw from Rays’ closer Manuel Rodriguez — launching a 389-foot walk-off grand slam to propel the Dodgers to a 7-3 victory over the Rays and Shohei Ohtani even deeper into the history books of Major League Baseball.

Quickest to Reach 40/40

It took Shohei Ohtani just 126 games to reach the 40/40 mark. That’s 21 games quicker than the next fastest in history — Alfonso Soriano — who did so in 147 games with the Nationals during his magical 2006 campaign.

He joins Soriano, Jose Canseco (1988), Ronald Acuna Jr. (2023), Alex Rodriguez (1998), and Barry Bonds (1996) as the only players in league history to reach both marks in the same season. No player in MLB history has ever gone 45/45 in a season — and that seems like another inevitability as Ohtani captures the National League Most Valuable Player award. He may even challenge for a 50/50 season which is so absurd that it’s difficult to quantify.

Shohei Ohtani is the reigning American League MVP, winning the award in 2023 and 2021. Once he captures the National League MVP award this season, he’ll join Frank Robinson as the only player in history to win the MVP award in each league. Once again, that’s some pretty impressive company to keep.

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Article originally written by David Shovein