Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani (30) blasts his 38th home run of the season. He also stole his 36th and 37th bases to improve to 40-40.
Ohtani started in the No. 1 spot in the lineup against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A., on Monday (Aug. 18), and after stealing his 36th and 37th bases, he hit a home run in his third at-bat of the fifth inning.
After going 0-for-5 with a walk and two strikeouts in St. Louis the day before, Ohtani improved his season average from 2-for-9 to 0-for-0 (138-for-475) with 37 home runs, 86 RBIs, 35 doubles and a .984 OPS.
In his first at-bat against St. Louis right-hander Andre Palante, Ohtani drew an eight-pitch walk in the top of the first inning.
He then stole second base on four pitches off Mookie Betts.
It was his 36th stolen base of the season. After advancing to third on Betts’ fly ball to left field, Ohtani scored on Freddie Freeman’s single to center field to give the team the lead.
In his second at-bat of the inning, he struck out swinging. He swung at a four-pitch knuckle curveball, but the pitch was a wild pitch and fell backward. After reaching first base on a strike-throwing error, Ohtani stole second on the second pitch of Freeman’s at-bat. 바카라사이트 His 37th stolen base of the season. He was stranded at second base when the next pitch was not hit.
Trailing 1-3 in the top of the fifth inning, he homered in his third at-bat. With the bases loaded and nobody out, he took Palante’s 80.3-mile-per-hour (129.2-kilometer-per-hour) knuckle curveball on a three-pitch fastball over the right-center field wall. The ball was clocked at 111.9 miles per hour (180.1 km/h), traveled 384 feet (117.0 meters) and had a 21-degree launch angle.
It was his 38th home run of the season and his first in four games since May 14 against the Milwaukee Brewers.
He maintains a three-game lead over NL leader Marcell Ozuna (Atlanta Braves-35) in that category.
With his 38 home runs and 37 doubles, Ohtani is just two home runs and three doubles shy of becoming the sixth player in major league history to record 40 home runs and 40 doubles.
Only five players in the majors have achieved the 40-40 mark: Jose Canseco of the Oakland Athletics in 1988 (42 homers-40 RBI), Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants in 1996 (42 homers-04 RBI), Alex Rodriguez of the Seattle Mariners in 1998 (42 homers-46 RBI), Alfonso Soriano of the Washington Nationals in 2006 (46 homers-41 RBI), and Ronald Acuña Jr. of the Atlanta Braves last year (41 homers-73 RBI).