Last Night in Baseball: Of Course Shohei Ohtani Created Another New 50-50 Club

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves.

Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from the weekend in Major League Baseball:

Ohtani invented another 50-50 club

Shohei Ohtani is incredible, and truly one of a kind. On Tuesday against the Phillies — a team that has already clinched the NL East in no small part due to their offense — Ohtani threw five no-hit innings with 5 strikeouts. He allowed just one baserunner, and dropped his ERA for the year to 3.29 in the process.

But that’s not all: Ohtani also hit his 50th home run of the season on Tuesday, which made him the 11th player in MLB history with more than one 50-homer campaign. Unlike in 2024, though, when he first achieved the feat, Ohtani is pitching this summer. So he’s also the first-ever player with 50 home runs in the same season that they also recorded 50 strikeouts — Ohtani started his day with 49 of those, and finished with 54.

Just astounding. He’s batting .282/.395/.611, with the slugging and his 1.006 OPS both leading the NL, and he struck out the only guy in the senior circuit ahead of him in homers, Kyle Schwarber, on the same day he swatted his 50th dinger of the year. 

When the Dodgers host a bobblehead night next year to celebrate this achievement, watch out. Ohtani is at his most Ohtani on those days.

The Dodgers bullpen, however…

You can take the Tungsten Arm O’Doyle out of Los Angeles, but… wait, no, that doesn’t work. Well, whatever, you get it. Shohei Ohtani did something incredibly impressive and unprecedented, as you just read, and yet his Los Angeles-based team lost the game, anyway, in a manner no one else had since 1906. The more things change and all that.

Yes, Ohtani spotted the Dodgers five no-hit, shutout innings, and Los Angeles lost to the Phillies despite this. The comeback began almost immediately, too: down 4-0 in the sixth, with Ohtani relieved by Justin Wrobleski, the Phillies got to work. Rafael Marchan, Harrison Bader and Kyle Schwarber loaded the bases with back-to-back-to-back singles, and Bryce Harper sent two of those runners home with a double. Brandon Marsh decided that wasn’t enough, so he followed that with a 3-run jack.

Wrobleski allowed five runs while recording a single out, and then the reliever who came in for him, Edgardo Henriquez, allowed a solo shot to Max Kepler to put the Phillies up 6-4. Ohtani’s 50th homer would give the Dodgers back a run, and then Alex Call tied things up with a sac fly later in the eighth inning. However, the Phillies were not finished massacring the Dodgers’ bullpen. 

With Blake Treinen on the mound, Weston Wilson doubled, and then Bryson Stott was intentionally walked to face Marchan. Marchan responded with a 3-run homer to give the Phillies a 9-6 lead.

As noted by SB Nation’s Eric Stephen, the last 10 games have been a disaster for the Dodgers’ bullpen. While the starters have a 1.75 ERA over those 10 games while averaging over six innings per start, the pen has given up 26 runs in 29.1 innings in the same stretch, for an ERA of 7.36. In half the innings, they’ve walked nearly as many hitters — 21 vs. the starters’ 19 — allowed eight more hits and over twice as many earned runs. 

The Dodgers aren’t necessarily in immediate danger of losing the NL West or anything — and they have a wild card spot just waiting for them if they do — but the bullpen needs to stop the bleeding, or else sticking around in October is going to be a lot more difficult.

D-Backs win again, Giants slipping

The Giants came into their three-game series with the Diamondbacks needing to string together a bunch of statement wins and solidify that they were an actual threat to the reeling Mets, but instead, they are now in danger of being swept. 

The Diamondbacks, though, are feeling good: they are the ones nearing a sweep of the Giants, after all, and are there because of a walk-off victory on Tuesday. 

Jordan Lawlar’s soft grounder was hit just hard enough to ensure that it wouldn’t be fielded in time for San Francisco to nail Corbin Carroll at the plate, and Arizona won. They are now 77-75 and winners of four in a row, and remain 1.5 back of the Mets despite New York’s W over the Padres in their series opener. 

While we’re in the “anything can happen!” phase of the season with under two weeks to go, it should be noted that the Giants lost more percentage points in their playoff odds with this defeat — 5.4% — than they still have: Baseball Reference has them at 4.7%, worse than both the Diamondbacks and Reds.

Big Dumper’s big new record(s)

On Monday, Cal Raleigh tied Mickey Mantle for the most home runs ever by a switch-hitter in a single season with his 54th dinger of the year. He then wasted no time in taking the record for himself, as Raleigh went yard in the third inning against Michael Wacha and the Royals for historic homer No. 55:

But that’s not all! Raleigh not only snagged a record set back in 1961 by a Hall of Famer and Yankees legend for himself, but then decided to match another Hall of Famer — but Mariners’ legend — in the very next inning. Big Dumper’s 56th homer of the year tied him with Ken Griffey Jr. for the most in a single season in Mariners’ history.

The next blast off the bat of Raleigh will give him sole possession of that franchise mark, but he also has 11 games left in 2025 to play with. If he can get to 59 homers, he’ll be tied for the 10th-most in a single season with Babe Ruth’s 1921 and Giancarlo Stanton’s 2017. If he hits 60, it will be just the 10th season ever with that many, and he would be the seventh player to reach that mark, joining Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Aaron Judge, Roger Maris and Ruth. 

Does Cleveland have enough time, though?

The Guardians did it again, this time pulling off an extra-inning win against the Tigers by scoring four runs in the top of the 10th. 

It’s their fifth win in a row, and 11th in September. They sit 2.5 back of the Red Sox — who lost on Tuesday — for the third wild card in the American League. There really is no denying that they are on the cusp of doing something extraordinary, but the problem is a matter of time: Cleveland has a dozen games left on the schedule and 2.5 games to make up against teams that have been consistently much better than them all season long. Then again, they have 12 games left where they just have to be a little bit better than one of the Red Sox or Astros, so let’s not count them out just yet. 

30-for-30 for Story

While the Red Sox lost 2-1 to the Athletics — an unfortunate result for them given the Astros defeated the Rangers and leapfrogged them in the wild card standings because of it — Trevor Story did have a notable moment. He stole his 30th base of the season… in 30 attempts.

That’s right, Boston’s shortstop has somehow not been caught stealing all year long. He might not walk all that often, and the batting average is nothing to write home about, but he’s been a menace on the basepaths and has enough power to be an above-average hitter and shortstop. A pretty good result for Story and the Sox, even before you consider his glove.

Aww, the Lindors

A heartwarming moment for the Mets and Francisco Lindor’s family: his wife, Katia, played the national anthem on a violin before Tuesday’s game, and you can see how excited and proud Francisco is watching it happen.

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