Add it to the list of baseball's most magical numbers: Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak, Ted Williams' .406 batting average, Bob Gibson's 1.12 ERA, Nolan Ryan's seven no-hitters ... Shohei Ohtani's 50/50 season.
And he got there as only Ohtani could: with maybe the greatest individual performance in major league history, and certainly Los Angeles Dodgers history. Ohtani went 6-for-6 with three home runs, five extra-base hits, two stolen bases and 10 RBIs Thursday afternoon in Miami to get to 51 home runs and 51 stolen bases. Marlins fans honored baseball history with a curtain call on his 50th home run -- and then another one on his 51st.
Absolute goose bumps moments.
First, Ohtani became the first player in major league history with multiple home runs, multiple stolen bases and five hits in a game (he also had seven RBIs at the time). When he hit his third home run in the ninth inning, he became just the second player with six hits and five extra-base hits in a game, matching former Dodgers outfielder Shawn Green (Ohtani broke Green's club record of 49 home runs on Thursday, as well). And Ohtani is the first player with five extra-base hits and 10 RBIs in a game.
Completely wild.
His home runs came in consecutive at-bats: a 438-foot blast way into the upper deck in the sixth inning, a 391-foot shot to the opposite field in the seventh for No. 50 and then an absurd 440-foot shot in the ninth.
"He's one of one," Dodgers teammate Kevin Kiermaier recently told ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball" crew.
Just as he has so many times, Ohtani has made the impossible become reality once again. How did we get here? Let's look at some of the numbers, both from his 50/50 season and throughout his career, that help us appreciate what we're witnessing.
Breaking down Ohtani's 50/50 campaign
How did he get to 50 home runs?
Mostly with a great deal of consistency throughout the season. Here are some of the numbers:
He has hit 51 home runs off 50 different pitchers.
He now has one three-homer game to go along with two two-homer games -- May 5 against the Atlanta Braves and June 16 against the Kansas City Royals, both at home.
He has hit 26 of his 51 home runs at Dodger Stadium.
His longest streak of consecutive games with a home run is three, which he has done twice.
His longest homerless stretch was nine games in late May.
His hottest stretch was June 11 through July 2, when he homered 12 times in 19 games.
He has pulled 27 home runs, with 18 going to center field and six to the opposite field.
Perhaps most impressively, he leads the majors with nine home runs of 450-plus feet (three more than Aaron Judge). That's the third-most 450-plus-foot home runs in a season going back to 2006 (Giancarlo Stanton had 13 in 2017; Judge had 10 the same year). Since Ohtani reached the majors in 2018, he's tied with Acuna for most 450-plus-foot home runs with 22 and tied with Judge with 78 home runs of 425-plus feet.
Ohtani's home runs are powerful, majestic and absolutely magnificent, his arms holding the bat stretched out from his body as he begins a swing conducted with what Dodgers announcer Joe Davis calls "a graceful violence." He finishes with unbelievable torque through his hips and legs, hardly the effortless-looking swing of a Ken Griffey Jr. -- but just as effective.
How did he get to 50 stolen bases?
Well, with a lot of strategy and prep work, for one. But it also took an impressive combination of aggressiveness and efficiency. With 51 steals in 55 attempts, it's the third-highest stolen base percentage in a 50-steal season:
Max Carey, 1922: 51-for-53 (96.23%)
Jacoby Ellsbury, 2013: 52-for-56 (92.96%)
Ohtani, 2024: 51-for-55 (92.73%)
Corbin Carroll, 2023: 54-for-59 (91.53%)
Jerry Mumphrey, 1980: 52-for-57 (91.23%)
How impressive is his 50/50 season?
Before Ohtani did it in the same season, only two players had ever hit 50 home runs and stolen 50 bases at any point in their career -- Barry Bonds and Brady Anderson.
In fact, before Ohtani, 31 different players had hit 50 home runs in a season 49 times; they averaged a mere 7.4 stolen bases in those seasons. The most stolen bases in a 50-homer season had been 24, by Willie Mays and Alex Rodriguez. Before Ohtani, a player had stolen 50 bases in a season 241 times (since the lively ball era began in 1920); those players averaged a mere 8.4 home runs in those seasons. Only three times had a player even reached 30 home runs in a 50-steal season (Ronald Acuna Jr., Eric Davis and Bonds).
In baseball terms, this is Roald Amundsen reaching the South Pole, Charles Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic, Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. An impossible achievement made possible by the most impossible player we've ever seen.
Freed from the burdens of pitching this season as he recovered from elbow surgery, Ohtani started off hot at the plate -- with 14 home runs by the end of May and 12 more in June. He then started to direct some of his energy to stealing more bases, a pace that picked up in late June when manager Dave Roberts moved him into the leadoff spot.
He stole 12 bases in July, giving him 28. The race was on, not just to become the sixth member of the 40/40 club, but the first of the 50/50 club. Similar to Thursday's performance, Ohtani hit his 40th home run and stole his 40th base in the same game on Aug. 23 -- winning it with a dramatic two-out, walk-off home run that sent Dodger Stadium into a frenzy and required a postgame curtain call.
"I think that he wants to be the greatest player to ever play this game," Roberts said after that game. "And when you start doing things like that, then you're certainly staking your claim."
Ohtani ranks second in the majors in both home runs (to Judge) and stolen bases (to Elly De La Cruz) this season.
The last player to rank in the top two in both categories? Ty Cobb, way back in 1909, when he led the majors with nine home runs and 78 stolen bases. The only other player to do it since 1901 was Honus Wagner the year before. Those are two players from the dead ball era. Now, Ohtani is only three home runs behind Judge for the major league lead -- and I wouldn't put it past him to catch Judge before the season ends.
One player who never did it was Willie Mays. He led the National League four times in home runs and four times in stolen bases, but never in the same season. He also topped out with a career best of 40 steals. Stolen bases weren't as important a part of the game early in Mays' career, and there are many anecdotes of him saying that when Jose Canseco turned in the first 40/40 season in 1988, Mays himself would have done it if he had known it would be a big deal.
But he didn't have a 40/40 season, let alone 50/50. He never had to put his body through the physical toll of stealing that many bases. Ohtani, again, stands alone.
Ohtani's power-speed combination this season ranks as one of the best of all time.
To put that top-two ranking in perspective, here's where the previous five members of the 40/40 club ranked in each category:
Canseco, 1988: 42 HR (first), 40 SB (12th)
Bonds, 1996: 42 HR (ninth), 40 SB (eighth)
Alex Rodriguez, 1998: 42 HR (12th), 46 SB (sixth)
Alfonso Soriano, 2006: 46 HR (fourth), 41 SB (10th)
Acuna, 2023: 41 HR (fifth), 73 SB (1st)
When you see that list, Acuna's season last year stands out. Indeed, applying Bill James' power/speed number, which combines the two numbers into the harmonic mean of the two, Acuna's year rates as the best of all time, with Ohtani not far behind:
Acuna, 2023: 52.51
Ohtani, 2024: 51.00 (so far)
Rodriguez, 1998: 43.91
Soriano, 2006: 43.36
Davis, 1987: 42.53
Was Acuna's season more impressive? I would argue with a defiant "no." Reaching 50 home runs is the more difficult ask, and Acuna fell well short there. As we mentioned, there have been many more 50-steal seasons than 50-homer seasons. And while stolen bases have been a little easier the past two seasons with the rules changes, stolen base rates are essentially the same as during the 1990s.
Oh, and Ohtani's season isn't yet over. He should pass Acuna's total anyway.
Why even 50/50 should come as no surprise
Ohtani's historic 2024 season does not stand alone in his career. He's no stranger to making history.
In 2021, he became the first player in MLB history with more than 10 home runs and 100 strikeouts in the same season -- and then he did it in the next two seasons as well (easily topping both figures all three years), capping off one of the most amazing three-year stretches we've ever seen.
In 2022, he ranked 11th in the majors in home runs and sixth in strikeouts as a pitcher, the first player to rank so high in those categories since Grasshopper Jim Whitney in 1883 (back when the pitching distance to home plate was 50 feet). In 2023, he was having his best season yet until he injured his elbow again, which would necessitate another surgery. Through Aug. 9, he led the majors in home runs (40) and OPS (1.076) while ranking fourth in strikeouts and seventh in ERA.
Ohtani hit 124 home runs from 2021 through 2024 -- fourth most in the majors over that span. As a hitter only, he accumulated 14.3 WAR, tied with Corey Seager and Bo Bichette for 17th overall among position players. As a pitcher, his 2.84 ERA ranked third among those with at least 400 innings pitched, and he ranked tied for fifth with 14.2 WAR. He would win American League MVP awards in 2021 and 2023 -- both unanimously, making him the first player to do so twice.
As my colleague Jeff Passan wrote, "In a game where players hit or pitch, he does both -- and to say it so plainly undersells his excellence in each endeavor. He is the most talented baseball player in the century-and-a-half-long history of the game."
Then you factor in his historic free agency -- the $700 million contract with the Dodgers. A 473-foot home run in July that cleared the outfield seats in right-center field at Dodger Stadium. The walk-off grand slam to get to 40/40. His dog Decoy delivering the best first pitch of the season, with Ohtani waiting at home plate with a smile as wide as Chavez Ravine. And now 50/50.
One of one.