This story was originally published by Dead Spin
The Los Angeles Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani this past offseason to do big things, and the two-time MVP already has made history before his first year with the club has been completed.
Ohtani became the sixth member of the majors’ 40-40 club on Friday. He recorded his 40th stolen base in the fourth inning and crafted another memorable moment when he hit a game-winning grand slam in the ninth for his 40th home run and a 7-3 victory over the visiting Tampa Bay Rays.
The teams will meet again at Los Angeles on Saturday night. The Dodgers have 33 regular-season games remaining with Ohtani looking to make a run at the first-ever 50-50 season.
“I think the most important thing is to be able to contribute to winning a game,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton, when asked about 50-50. “Obviously the closer I get to 50-50, the more I’m contributing to team wins, so if that’s how it is, I’m happy with that.”
As the Dodgers carry a five-game winning streak into Saturday, Los Angeles left-hander Clayton Kershaw (2-2, 2.63 ERA) also will draw his fair share of attention in his sixth start of the season.
Kershaw has made progress following his July 25 season debut and a pair of rough outings at the outset. It has been all upward from there, with Kershaw giving up a combined two runs over 16 1/3 innings in consecutive starts against the Philadelphia Phillies, Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals.
The outing against the Cardinals, on the road Sunday, was his longest this season (six innings) and the first scoreless start of his comeback. He gave up four hits and earned a win for the second consecutive outing.
“Honestly, I don’t even remember what it felt like to not have your shoulder hurt. It’s nice,” Kershaw said.
In three career regular-season starts against the Rays, Kershaw is 2-0 with a 3.26 ERA. He also had two starts against Tampa Bay in the 2020 World Series, going 2-0 with a 2.31 ERA to help Los Angeles to the title in after the pandemic-shortened regular season.
The Rays will counter Saturday with right-hander Taj Bradley (6-8, 3.55 ERA). After a run of three consecutive scoreless outings in July, as well as a stretch of nine outings when he was 5-1 with a 0.82 ERA, Bradley has struggled.
Over his past four starts, Bradley is 0-4 with an 8.10 ERA and gave up three runs over six innings in a 3-0 loss to the Oakland Athletics on Monday. Bradley has never faced the Dodgers in two seasons.
On Friday, Junior Caminero hit his first home run of the season for the Rays and his second in 17 career games. Christopher Morel also hit a home run, his third in 20 games since joining the Rays in a swap from the Chicago Cubs at the trade deadline last month.
Tampa Bay left-hander Tyler Alexander had the Dodgers’ offense slightly off-balance early Friday, but Enrique Hernandez tied the game at 3-3 in the fifth inning for the Dodgers with a three-run home run, setting up Ohtani’s late heroics.
Now the Rays will have to recover from a stunning defeat after Ohtani hit his game-winning home run against left-hander Colin Poche.
“Yeah, obviously a dangerous hitter,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We talked about trying to get ahead with the slider. Threw one that probably got too much of the zone, and he put a good swing on it.”
–Field Level Media
