Shohei Ohtani reaches 1,000th career hit, third straight 40-homer season

Los Angeles Dodgers’ two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani achieved two major milestones in the same week, adding to one of the most productive seasons of his career.

Ohtani recorded the 1,000th hit of his Major League career with a 440-foot two-run home run (his 39th of the season) against the St. Louis Cardinals on Aug. 6. The 31-year-old became the third Japanese-born player in MLB history to reach the milestone, joining Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui, and the fourth active Dodgers player to do so alongside Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernández. In the same game, Ohtani pitched four innings, struck out eight batters and allowed one run on two hits.

Three days later, on Aug. 9, Ohtani hit his 40th home run of the season, a solo shot in the fifth inning of the Dodgers’ 9-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. It marked his third consecutive season with at least 40 home runs, making him the first player to accomplish the feat since Khris Davis with the Oakland Athletics from 2016 to 2018.

Ohtani has achieved these offensive numbers while returning to the mound following surgery. Since June, he has progressed from single-inning outings to four innings in his latest start. Over eight starts, he has a 2.37 ERA with 25 strikeouts in 19 innings. The combination of at least 40 home runs as a hitter and 25 strikeouts as a pitcher in the same season is something Babe Ruth never achieved. Ohtani has now done it three times.