Shohei Ohtani officially started the 50-50 club in a sport where no player in its more than 100-year history has hit more than 42 home runs and 42 stolen bases in a season.

For some players, this would be a career-defining achievement. For Ohtani, it’s just another entry on a mythical resume, and he created the 51-51 club in the same game.

The Los Angeles Dodgers star hit his 49th, 50th and 51st home runs and stole his 50th and 51st bases in a single game against the Miami Marlins on Thursday, making history by going 6-for-6 with three home runs, two doubles, two steals, four runs scored and 10 RBIs in the Dodgers’ 20-4 victory that gave Ohtani his first MLB playoff appearance.

The home run that put him at 50-50 came in the seventh inning and gave him an away curtain call.

Because of this track record, Ohtani is the favorite to win his third MVP award, making him the only player other than Frank Robinson to win the award in both leagues.

Ohtani accomplished all of this in a season in which he didn’t do what made him the international face of baseball: hit and throw at the same time. His throwing arm is still on the mend after he underwent major UCL surgery on September 19 of last season. A year to the day later, he has one of the best offensive games of all time.

Shohei Ohtani reached 50-50, then 51-51, with one of the best games in MLB history

Ohtani’s 50-50 goal on Thursday seemed inevitable, coming into the game with 48 home runs and 49 steals while swinging one of the best bats in baseball. But even the most optimistic Dodger fans probably wouldn’t have expected that against the Marlins.

Then Ohtani easily had the best game of an MVP season and by any player in 2024. It was the first 10-RBI game in Dodgers history and the 16th in MLB history. It was the first time a player had two home runs, two steals and five hits in a game, and then he hit another home run, making it the first game ever with three home runs and two stolen bases. He did all that to achieve the first 50-50 season in history, a feat many thought impossible before this season.

In case you forgot: He can also throw.

Ohtani was the first to reach 50 steals, opening the game with a double and reaching third base two batters later.

An RBI single followed one inning later, then he reached second base with runners on the corners and stole his 51st base.

Ohtani’s only out of the game came in the third inning when he hit another double but was thrown out trying to turn it into a triple. Had he succeeded, he would have hit the second cycle of his career and added even more history to an already ridiculous day.

The home runs came in the later innings when Ohtani hit his first home run to right field to give the Dodgers a 9-3 lead in the sixth inning.

Then, in the seventh round, history happened, sooner than anyone expected.

The last home run was against a fielder, Vidal Brujan. Chris Taylor extended the game with a two-out single, opening the door for Ohtani to make the exclamation point of all exclamation marks.

All in all, this game secures Ohtani an amazing place in the MLB record books.

It’s no exaggeration to call this the best offensive game in MLB history, especially considering the history at stake. Shawn Green, whose Dodgers single-season home run record Ohtani both tied and broke on Thursday, holds the MLB record for total bases in a game with 19 (achieved with four home runs, a single and a double). Counting Ohtani’s stolen bases or if his second double had gone a few feet farther, Ohtani would tie that mark.

Regardless, he will receive a hero’s welcome at the Dodgers’ next home game against the Colorado Rockies on Friday.

Shohei Ohtani added another facet to his game and the result is 50-50

Even before this season, one could make a convincing argument that Ohtani is the most talented player in baseball history, at least in terms of his technical ability.

He can clearly hit and hit with power. As a pitcher, his four-seam fastball and sweeper are elite throws, followed by a cutter, sinker, curveball and splitter. He even had his moments with his glove and arm while playing right field in Japan.

It’s not unreasonable to call him an “eight-tool player.” It might even be conservative.

Ohtani’s speed, however, was the most erratic. At 6’4″ and 215 pounds, he’s considered a big man even by baseball standards, and he’s faster than a big man should be. He’s spent much of his career in the top quarter of sprint speed among MLB players, though that’s always seemed like a footnote on an already long page.

Ohtani had tried to use that speed on the basepaths in the past, with mixed results. His previous career high in stolen bases was 26 in 2021, his first MVP year, but he was also tied with the MLB leader with 10 missed attempts. His career success rate before 2024 was 72.3%, a rate that will lead many sabermetricians to advise you to stop bothering with stealing bases.

This year, things have changed. Ohtani managed 50 stolen bases with only four missed hits, so he has not only increased his stolen base count but also his efficiency. The larger bases and restrictions on pickoff attempts introduced in MLB last year have undoubtedly helped as well.

While it would be easy to attribute this to Dodger manager Dave Roberts, a speedster in his playing days and responsible for perhaps the most famous base-stealing case in MLB history, it is reportedly Ohtani’s working relationship with Dodgers first-base coach Clayton McCullough that helped him become a real problem on the basepaths.

From Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic:

So, Ohtani is not only one of the best hitters in MLB and one of the best pitchers when healthy, but also one of the best baserunners, something he accomplished in his 30th season. This can be attributed to the change of scenery from the Angels to the Dodgers, or perhaps the opportunity for Ohtani to focus on something else since he was out of the game as a pitcher for a year.

Above all, credit must be given to Ohtani, whose talent has once again enabled him to achieve something unprecedented.

Dodgers’ $700 million investment in Shohei Ohtani has paid off well so far

In his first year with the Dodgers, Ohtani hit 51 home runs and 51 steals, stayed healthy for one of baseball’s most injury-plagued teams, and became a promotional machine for one of the richest teams in the sport.

We’d call that a good start, even though the team had to weather the Ippei Mizuhara scandal, which saw Ohtani face troubling questions about his former interpreter’s gambling addiction before emerging completely unscathed in the eyes of the U.S. Department of Justice, the IRS and MLB.

It feels so long ago that Ohtani’s $700 million contract value was announced, and he fell like a boulder onto the shard of glass that fans considered an understanding of how athletes’ contracts work. His sizable financial deferrals softened the blow to the Dodgers’ business side, but the record-breaking deal still made him the only baseball player not allowed to have a bad year.

And Ohtani didn’t. Instead, he’s the clear favorite for National League MVP honors and will make his MLB playoff debut in his seventh major league season, accomplishing something that seemed nearly impossible before this summer.