Shohei Ohtani Belts Two Homers, Reaches Career Milestone Quicker Than Any Player

Ohtani ended a home run drought and achieved a career milestone quicker than any player in MLB history.
Ohtani broke out of a home run drought in a big way on Saturday night.
Ohtani broke out of a home run drought in a big way on Saturday night. / Ryan Sun-Imagn Images
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After enduring a 10-game stretch without a home run dating back to June 2, Shohei Ohtani ended the long ball drought in a big way, belting two round-trippers in the Los Angeles Dodgers' 11-5 win over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night. But getting back into the home run column is far from the only thing Ohtani achieved in Los Angeles' win.

Ohtani's second home run, a 384-foot shot in the bottom of the sixth inning, gave him 250 for his career. The Dodgers' two-way star needed just 944 career games to notch 250-plus career home runs and 150-plus stolen bases, the fewest of any player in MLB history, surpassing the previous mark set by Alex Rodriguez (977 games), according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com.

As Langs notes, Ohtani reached the mark even quicker, as he has technically only actually hit in 928 of his career games, but, being a two-way player, his total of 944 career games reflects those in which he's both pitched and taken at-bats as a hitter.

And while Ohtani did seem a bit relieved to be rid of the home run drought, he was more concerned with the fact that the first of his two homers allowed the Dodgers to get an early jump on the Giants.

"It did feel like I haven't hit a homer in awhile," Ohtani said after the Dodgers' victory. "In terms of the context of the two homers, I think the first one was more significant just being able to score early in the game."

Ohtani, the reigning National League MVP, now owns a .290/.385/.638 slash line with 25 home runs, 41 RBI, 71 runs scored, and 11 stolen bases in 69 games played in 2025.


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Tim Capurso
TIM CAPURSO

Tim Capurso is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Prior to joining SI in November 2023, he wrote for RotoBaller and ClutchPoints, where he was the lead editor for MLB, college football and NFL coverage. A lifelong Yankees and Giants fan, Capurso grew up just outside New York City and now lives near Philadelphia. When he's not writing, he enjoys reading, exercising and spending time with his family, including his three-legged cat Willow, who, unfortunately, is an Eagles fan.