Shohei Ohtani accomplished much more with his performance Thursday night than just becoming the first 50/50 player in Major League Baseball – an accomplishment that is amazing in itself.

Ohtani, the designated MVP of the National League, delivered what could be described as the best offensive game in MLB history in the Dodgers’ 20-4 win in Miami. No exaggeration.

The numbers speak for themselves. Ohtani was 6-for-6 with three home runs, two doubles, 10 RBIs and two stolen bases. His 17 total bases and 10 RBIs are the most ever by a leadoff hitter in a game.

With all that, he became the player with 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases, a year after Atlanta’s Ronald Acuna became the first to have a 40/70 season.

Ohtani is in his first season with the Dodgers after signing a 10-year, $700 million contract as a free agent. The Dodgers immediately jumped on a deal that will pay him $2 million in salary this season due to deferrals. He’s 51/51 heading into Friday’s games.

Since RBIs became an official statistic in 1920, according to OPTA statistics, only one major league player has played a game in his career that included at least 10 RBIs, six hits, five extra-base hits, three home runs and two stolen bases.

That was Ohtani.

He did it in a single game.

“This game has been around for a long time,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “And to do something nobody has ever done before … he’s one of a kind.”

Roberts knows a little about the game’s history. A small part of it is his – his steal of second base in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the 2004 American League Championship Series helped the Boston Red Sox to a 6-4 victory in 12 innings over the New York Yankees.

From there, the Red Sox won the final three games of the series, becoming the first team in MLB history to overcome a 3-0 deficit in the playoffs, and went on to beat St. Louis in the World Series.

The 50/50 speculation surrounding Ohtani had intensified in recent weeks as he approached the numbers that would guarantee him his third MVP award, his first in the National League after winning two in 2021 and 2023 with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim from across town. That would make him the only player other than Frank Robinson to have won the award in both leagues.

“If I’m honest, I wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “I’m just happy, relieved and have a lot of respect for my colleagues and everyone who came before me.”

It’s hard to tell that Ohtani spent the season rehabbing after a second Tommy John surgery on his right elbow in September 2023 that kept him off the mound this season.

Still, Ohtani’s night could have been even more legendary.

Ohtani was just a few feet away from a four-run, cycle game on Thursday. He hit a double high off the right-center field fence in the first inning and just missed a home run. His liner into the left-center field gap rolled to the fence in the third inning, but he was narrowly thrown out on a tight play at third base trying to turn it into a triple.

“I think he just felt good, sexy and just knew, ‘Today I’m going to do this,'” said Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts, who was AL MVP with Boston in 2018.

“I mean, he could have hit four home runs today. I’m lost for words.”

In modern (since 1900) Major League history, there have been 16 games with four home runs, including games by Hall of Famers Lou Gehrig, Chuck Klein, Gil Hodges, Willie Mays and Mike Schmidt.

None of them had the overarching significance of Ohtani.

Former Dodger Shawn Green may come closest. Green, who until Thursday held the Dodgers’ single-season home run record with 49, was also 6-for-6 in his four-home game in a 16-3 win over Milwaukee on May 23, 2002. He had seven RBIs and 19 total bases.

Schmidt had five hits, four home runs and eight RBIs in an 18-16 win over the Chicago Cubs at windy Wrigley Field on April 17, 1976.

But none of the 16 players managed to steal a base in his game with four home runs.

Green called Ohtani the “greatest player who ever lived.”

“When you lose a record, you want it to be a great player,” he said. “And the fact that he did it in such a historic way is perhaps even better. Getting to 50-50 is not a Dodger thing, it’s an unprecedented milestone in Major League Baseball.

“There aren’t enough adjectives to describe how incredible he’s been throughout his career, but especially in that first season with the Dodgers, with all the pressure on him. It’s really mind-blowing what he’s accomplished.”

Ohtani leads the NL in home runs and RBIs (120) and ranks second in the major leagues in both categories behind Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees (53, 136). In stolen bases, Ohtani ranks second in the major leagues behind Elly De La Cruz of Cincinnati (64).

According to the Los Angeles Times, Miami manager Skip Schumaker was caught on camera saying, “(expletive) that, I have way too much respect for the guy,” when someone on the Marlins’ bench suggested intentionally making Ohtani walk late in the game.

“This is a bad move as far as baseball, karma and the baseball gods are concerned,” Schumacher said afterward. “Go after him and see if you can get him out.”

On Thursday evening, no one could do that.