Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Sunday, Sept. 22. I’m your host, Andrew J. Campa. Here’s what you need to know to start your weekend:
Newsletter
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
Shohei Ohtani accomplishes a rare baseball first
Superhuman. Otherworldly. Incomparable.
Fans are running out of superlatives to describe Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani’s brilliant performance this year.
One moniker that’s often used and perhaps most aptly, however, is unicorn. The mythical horned horse has come to symbolize the unique, extraordinary and even the impossible.
Ohtani reached rarefied air Thursday in Miami.
The 30-year-old Japanese sensation crushed three home runs in the Dodgers’ 20-4 victory over the Marlins to become the first baseball player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in one season in Major League Baseball history.
There have nearly 21,000 players since 1876, according to the Baseball Almanac, and Ohtani became the founding member of the 50-50 club.
“This game has been around for a long time,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told The Times on Thursday. “And to do something that’s never been done — he’s one of one.”
My colleague Jack Harris chronicled the buildup to the game, Ohtani’s amazing accomplishment and the aftermath of a truly special day.
Anticipation grows with each at bat
For weeks, each of Ohtani’s trips to the plate had been accompanied by questions across the press boxes of America’s ballparks.
Is Ohtani going to homer? Is he going to steal?
Ohtani entered Thursday’s contest with a National League-leading 48 home runs and 49 stolen bases.
First three at-bats
In his first at-bat Thursday, he smashed a screaming line drive thudding off the wall in right-center for a double.
After a walk to the Dodgers’ next batter, Freddie Freeman, the fleet-footed Ohtani slid under the tag of Marlins rookie Connor Norby at third base for a successful stolen base.
His 50th steal was down. Two home runs were left to go.
After his leadoff double and steal, Ohtani hooked an RBI single in the second inning, and then stole second without a throw.
Ohtani: 48 home runs, 51 steals.
He doubled in the third inning in his third at-bat, knocking in two runs. In his only blemish of the evening, Ohtani was thrown out trying to turn a double into a triple.
For the rest of the game, the National League home run leader moved into the power portion of his two-act affair.
The first of Ohtani’s home runs
When Ohtani came up in the sixth, he seemed likely to have only two more at-bats. If he was going to get to 50-50, he needed to hit a home run now.
Miami right-handed pitcher George Soriano helped by tossing a hanging breaking pitch.
Ohtani took a mighty hack, stood and stared as it soared to the upper deck in right for his first home run.
Home run No. 49 traveled 438 feet and tied Shawn Green’s franchise record set in 2001.
Ohtani: 49 home runs, 51 steals.
The 50-50 club
Miami Marlins pitcher Mike Baumann struck out Ohtani a day earlier, throwing fastballs early and then finishing him off with a curveball.
On Thursday night, in a rematch in the seventh inning, Baumann tried a similar sequence and jumped ahead with two strikes.
Down 0-and-2, Ohtani called time out and ran his fingers through his hair. Once he dug back in, Baumann prepared to deliver a pitch with what he hoped was a put-away spin. Like the previous night, Baumann threw his two-strike curveball in the dirt. But this time, Ohtani laid off.
Undeterred, Baumann rocked, fired and unleashed another two-strike curve. This one, however, had a little late break.
A hanging meatball. Hit squarely off the barrel.
Home run No. 50 was an opposite-field rocket, traveling an estimated 391 feet after exploding off Ohtani’s bat at 109.7 mph.
Coaxed by teammates to take a curtain call, Ohtani emerged just as the pitch clock was about to expire in the next at-bat.
Ohtani achieved MLB’s first 50-50 season, founding a once-unfathomable club that now has a membership of one.
Ohtani: 50 home runs, 51 stolen bases.
One last curtain call
Ohtani completed his historic performance with a third home run in the ninth inning — marking his first three-homer game, giving him a career-high six hits and setting a Dodgers record with 10 RBIs in a game.
“That’s insane,” third baseman Max Muncy said.
“Just unexplainable,” outfielder Mookie Betts echoed.
That evening, the Dodgers also clinched the first postseason bid of Ohtani’s career, and the 12th in a row for the Dodgers franchise.
Ohtani: 51 home runs, 51 stolen bases
Post-game celebration
When Ohtani returned to the clubhouse, after a couple of on-field interviews, he found a few surprises waiting.
Commemorative “50/50” T-shirts were being handed out to teammates, displaying Ohtani sliding on one side of the slash-mark and taking a swing on the other. Bubbling glasses of Veuve Clicquot were being passed around as well.
Roberts praised the room for the annual October advancement as well. Ohtani also rose to deliver a brief speech in English.
At Roberts’ postgame chat with reporters, he was thrown a lighthearted hypothetical about Ohtani’s chances of reaching 60-60.
“I mean as long as there’s games being played,” Roberts said laughing. “He drove in like 15 runs tonight, so, there’s nothing saying he can’t hit nine or 10 more homers.”
For one remarkable night, and one record-shattering regular season, Ohtani and the Dodgers already had done plenty.
For more coverage, including the valuable 50th home run ball and Ohtani’s standing in the MVP race, check out the Times coverage.
The week’s biggest stories
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Crime, courts and policing
Fires and firefighting
National and local elections, politics
More big stories
Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here.
Column One
Column One is The Times’ home for narrative and longform journalism. Here’s a great piece from this week:
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
In 2018, emergency dispatchers received a strange call from a remote valley in Riverside County. The caller was a 22-year-old student who said that she had been unable to leave her rural college campus for months while she was forced to work without compensation. She said she lived there with 300 others, dispatch records show, and that barbed wire surrounded the school.
More great reads
How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.
For your weekend
(Illustrations by Lindsey Made This; photo from Joe Gall)
Going out
Staying in
L.A. Affairs
Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage.
(Charlotte Gomez / For The Times)
Tears should be running down my face in torrents, but they aren’t. I find myself feeling happier than I’ve felt in months. We might have to move. We might have to move. We can leave. We’ll have to leave! I smile from ear to ear and start dreaming of another life in another place. And then it hits me. I’ve fallen out of love with L.A.
Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team
Andrew J. Campa, reporter
Carlos Lozano, news editor
Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.