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From Jack Harris: Superhuman. Otherworldly. Unbelievable. One of a kind.
They’ve all been used to explain Shohei Ohtani over the course of his two-way, two-continent and two-time MVP-winning career; lofty descriptors for a unicorn player unlike any other to grace a diamond.
But on Thursday afternoon, in what started as a sleepy matinee at loanDepot Park in central Miami, none of those terms quite captured the most defining performance of Ohtani’s baseball life.
He didn’t just become the first player in MLB history to have 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in the same season, eclipsing both marks in the Dodgers’ 20-4 win over the Miami Marlins — one that just so happened to clinch the first postseason bid of Ohtani’s career, and the 12th in a row for the Dodgers franchise.
But he did it with one of the greatest single-game performances the century-and-a-half-old sport has perhaps ever seen.
ix hits in six at-bats. Three home runs and two steals. Ten RBIs and 17 total bases. And then, at precisely 6:55 p.m. EDT in the top of the seventh inning, one signature moment that will forever live in baseball immortality.
In his first at-bat with a chance to inaugurate MLB’s 50-50 club, Ohtani clobbered a history-making two-run blast.
“This game has been around for a long time,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “And to do something that’s never been done — he’s one of one.”
Shawn Green on Shohei Ohtani breaking his Dodgers record: He’s the greatest ever
How MLB and Dodgers are cashing in on Shohei Ohtani’s 50-50 milestone
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ANGELS
Jon Singleton’s tiebreaking two-run double with two outs in the eighth inning lifted the Houston Astros to a 3-1 win over the Angels on Thursday night.
The game was tied 1-1 when Ryan Miller (0-1) walked Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker to start the eighth. A fielder’s-choice grounder by Yainer Diaz sent Alvarez to third.
Jeremy Peña grounded out on a ball that rolled just in front of the batter’s box before the Angels intentionally walked Victor Caratini to load the bases.
Singleton then smacked his two-strike double, a line drive to center field to score Alvarez and Diaz.
UCLA FOOTBALL
From Ben Bolch: The expletives and biting one-liners that Eric Bieniemy unleashes on a football field never cut as deep as the internal dialogue.
If anyone is to blame for what goes wrong, it’s UCLA’s offensive coordinator, and he’s not afraid to let himself hear it.
“You’ve got to understand, I go back and kick myself in the ass — man, ‘Why’d I call this play? Why did I do that? E.B., what are you doing?’” Bieniemy told The Times on Wednesday with a hearty chuckle.
“Just like I’m hard on them, I’m even harder on myself because it’s my job to make sure that I’m giving them the best opportunity. There’s a few calls that I know I would love to take back and if you could, if I had an opportunity to be a time traveler, certain things would be different.”
SPARKS
Dearica Hamby scored 20 points, Rickea Jackson added 19 and the last-place Sparks closed the WNBA season with a 68-51 win over the playoff-bound Minnesota Lynx on Thursday night.
The Sparks (8-32) ended an eight-game losing streak and stopped Minnesota’s seven-game winning streak. In addition, Hamby passed Nneka Ogwumike as the Sparks’ single-season points leader, finishing with 691 points.
The second-seeded Lynx (30-10) are home against seventh-seeded Phoenix in the best-of-three opening round on Sunday afternoon.
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THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1913 — Twenty-year-old amateur Francis Ouimet beats Britain’s Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in an 18-hole playoff to win the U.S. Open.
1924 — Grover Cleveland Alexander wins his 300th game as the Chicago Cubs defeat the New York Giants 7-3 in 12 innings.
1939 — Joe Louis knocks out Bob Pastor in the 11th round at Briggs Stadium in Detroit to retain the world heavyweight title.
1973 — Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in straight sets to win the Battle of the Sexes and the $100,000 winner-take-all purse at Houston’s Astrodome.
1980 — Spectacular Bid wins the Woodward Stakes in the world’s richest walkover. Before a crowd of 23,000 spectators, the 4-year-old covers the 1¼ miles at Belmont Park in 2:02.4. It’s the last race of his career and he finishes the year undefeated in nine races and is named American Horse of the Year. There had not been a walkover in a major U.S. stakes race since Coaltown won the Edward Burke Handicap on April 23, 1949.
1982 — The NFL Players Association announces a strike at the completion of the Green Bay-New York Giants Monday Night game.
1987 — Chicago’s Walter Payton breaks Jim Brown’s NFL record with his 107th rushing touchdown as the Bears beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20-3.
1988 — Greg Louganis wins Olympic gold medal in springboard diving, one day after hitting his head on the diving board in the preliminary round. Louganis, who needed five stitches, is solid throughout the 11-dive program. His 730.80 points wins the gold, beating China’s Tan Liangde. Tan, who finishes with 704.88 points, also finished second to Louganis in the 1984 Olympic Games.
1992 — Raymond Floyd makes PGA Tour history, becoming the first player to win tournaments on the regular and Senior PGA tours in the same year. Floyd birdies five of his last seven holes to win the GTE North Classic after winning the Doral-Ryder Open in March on the regular tour.
2003 — Rashaun Woods of Oklahoma State, catches seven touchdown passes to set an NCAA Division I-A record in the Cowboys’ 52-6 win over SMU. Woods breaks the mark of six set by San Diego State’s Tim Delaney in a 1969 game against New Mexico State. Woods finishes with 13 catches for 232 yards.
2009 — Minnesota Vikings QB Brett Favre sets an NFL record with his 271st straight start in a 27-13 win over the Detroit Lions. Defensive end Jim Marshall had the previous mark for consecutive starts, 270 games in a row for Minnesota from 1961-1979.
2015 — The United States beats Europe with the biggest comeback in Solheim Cup history. Paula Creamer beats Germany’s Sandra Gal 4 and 3 to complete the 14 1/2-13 1/2 victory. Europe had a four-point lead entering the 12 singles matches, which the United States win 8 1/2 to 3 1/2 in those matches.
2021 — Salvador Perez, Kansas City Royals, hits his 46th home run to break Hall of Famers Johnny Bench’s MLB record for most home runs in a season by a catcher.
2022 — Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge breaks his own world record for the marathon in 2 hours 1 minute 9 seconds in Berlin (previous record 2:01:39).
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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