Shohei Ohtani, the starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday, achieved a huge career milestone against the St. Louis Cardinals.
At the plate.
The two-way player, also in the lineup against the St. Louis Cardinals as the designated hitter, blasted a 1-1 sinker from left-hander Matthew Liberatore in the third inning for a two-run home run. The ball, which traveled 440 feet to left-center field, was the 1,000th major league hit for Ohtani. It exited Dodger Stadium at a velocity of 109.5 mph.
He became the third Japanese-born player in major league history to reach the 1,000-hit mark, trailing Ichiro Suzuki (3,089) and Hideki Matsui (1,253). And he’s now the fourth member of the star-studded Dodgers to be part of the 1,000-hit club, following Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernandez.
Ohtani needed 973 games to reach the magical number. The 31-year-old also had 297 hits in 414 career games in Japan’s pro leagues before moving to the United States and joining the Los Angeles Angels in 2018.
Helping his own cause
Ohtani recently returned to the mound and is slowly building up his arm strength after missing the 2024 season and the first half of 2025 following surgery on his pitching elbow.
He pitched four innings against St. Louis, his longest outing in eight starts this season. He allowed one run on two hits, struck out eight batters and didn’t allow a walk. Of his 54 pitches, 37 were strikes.
Ohtani, a three-time Most Valuable Player, turned the game over to the Los Angeles bullpen in the fifth inning with a 3-1 lead, largely built on the strength of his 39th home run of the season.
He signed a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers before the 2024 season.
Final numbers
With Ohtani out of the game, the Cardinals got to the Los Angeles bullpen, scoring twice in the eighth inning and once in the ninth to pull out a 5-3 victory.
On the season, Ohtani has no decisions and a 2.37 ERA with 25 strikeouts in 19 innings on the mound.
As a batter, he has a slash line of .276.381/.606/.987 with 75 RBIs in 113 games.
Sarah Langs of MLB.com said Ohtani’s home run total is the most of any player in Dodgers history through the first 115 games of a season, one more than Duke Snider hit in 1955.
