Shohei Ohtani reaches 52-52 mark in Dodgers win over Rockies

If the Dodgers had the National League West title in their pocket by now, as they usually do, they could have released Shohei Ohtani on Friday night so he could bask in the glory of Thursday’s game, in which he had six hits, three home runs, two doubles and 10 RBIs and became a founding member of the baseball club with 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases.

But with the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks, baseball’s two strongest teams since the All-Star break, within striking distance on the penultimate weekend of the season, Ohtani was in the lineup for the series’ opening game against the last-place Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium.

“There are no days off right now,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “We have to keep winning baseball games. We still have guys breathing down our necks and I want our guys to continue to stay hungry.”

That’s no problem for Ohtani, who seems insatiable at the plate. The slugger hit his NL-leading 52nd home run in the fifth inning, turning a one-run deficit into a one-run lead. He stole his 52nd base in the seventh inning, part of a three-hit night that helped the Dodgers to a 6-4 victory at Chavez Ravine.

Teoscar Hernández broke a 3-3 tie with his 30th home run in the sixth inning and capped a two-run seventh inning with an RBI single as the Dodgers (92-62) reduced their magic number to five to clinch their 11th division title in 12 years and maintain their four-game lead over the Padres and six games over the Diamondbacks.

Ohtani, who hammered a chest-high, 92-mph fastball from Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland 423 feet for his game-winning home run, scored nine of 10 runs with four home runs and 12 RBIs in wins over Miami on Thursday and Colorado on Friday night.

“I think he’s increased his concentration, I really do,” Roberts said of Ohtani. “I don’t want to say anybody’s trying to make outs, but I think the last couple of games he’s been focused. It’s pretty spectacular to be able to cover the ball over the zone and get the big part of the field. And if you look at the home runs last week, they were balls down, so it’s just pretty remarkable that he was able to cover that.”

The Dodgers were down 2-0 when Andy Pages opened the fifth with a 400-foot home run off Freeland to left field. Max Muncy hit a double to left center with one out and Ohtani sent a 110 mph rocket over the center field wall on what could have been ball 4 to give the Dodgers a 3-2 lead.

“It’s just about generating bat speed to keep up with the pitch,” Roberts said when asked how a player can hit a ball so high and so hard. “And he didn’t see a lot of pitches up there tonight. There were a lot of changeups down there. I’m sure Freeland was pretty surprised, too, but (Shohei) only has one right now.”

Shohei Ohtani receives a standing ovation before his first at-bat on Friday against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Sam Hilliard tied Colorado at 3-3 with a two-out solo home run against Alex Vesia in the sixth inning, but Hernández’s home run made it 4-3 in the sixth inning and the Dodgers extended their lead to 6-3 in the seventh inning.

Ohtani was involved in the seventh-inning comeback – or rather, with two legs – and followed Tommy Edman’s walk and stolen base with an infield single that beat Rockies first baseman Michael Toglia to the base and put runners on first and third base with one out.

Ohtani stole second base without throwing, marking the 29th consecutive time he stole a base without being caught. Edman scored on Mookie Betts’ sacrifice fly to center, Ohtani reached third base, and Hernández followed with an RBI infield single for a 6-3 lead.

“Shohei plays hard,” Roberts said. “He steals bases, he runs hard down the line. And if he hadn’t come out of the box hard, it would have been two outs and a man on third base. Instead, it’s first and third base, allowing Mookie to score a run on the sacrifice fly. Those are little things that are a big deal.”

Evan Phillips (seventh) and Blake Treinen (eighth) threw scoreless innings in a bullpen game, and Michael Kopech allowed a leadoff home run by Toglia in the ninth inning before retiring three batters in a row for his 14th save.

Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts catches a ball off the wall in the first inning against the Colorado Rockies on Friday.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

The game began with a masterpiece from Betts: The Dodgers right fielder ran to the wall to catch Charlie Blackmon’s drive in the first inning with a leaping catch, stealing extra bases from the leadoff player.

Ohtani, lined up with his teammates in front of the dugout, received a long standing ovation from the 49,073 fans when he was tagged in at the bottom of the first inning, but as chants of “MVP!” echoed through the stadium, Ohtani misfired, marking the beginning of a four-inning stretch in which the Dodgers managed just two singles against Freeland.

The Rockies scored on Hunter Goodman’s groundout against Joe Kelly in the second inning and Blackmon’s two-out solo home run against Daniel Hudson in the fifth. Brusdar Graterol retired the team in order in the third and fourth innings.

Rehabilitation report

Clayton Kershaw completed a 32-pitch bullpen session on Friday, just two days after throwing 80 pitches from a bullpen mound in Miami, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the veteran left-hander is close to returning from a toe injury that has kept him out of action since Sept. 1.

“The most important thing is to get him healthy again, which he isn’t yet,” Roberts said. “The other part is to keep his arm moving so he doesn’t lose his buildup work. The last part is execution, and that’s hard to do if you’re not working with the whole deck. He’s doing the best he can, and every day he’s getting healthier and feeling better.”

Reliever Anthony Banda, who suffered a fractured left hand when he hit what the team called a “solid object” in frustration over allowing two runs in a Sept. 9 game, completed a bullpen session Thursday and another bullpen workout is scheduled for this weekend.

“The velocity was good and he’ll throw another one with his slider,” Roberts said of Banda, a left-hander who is 2-2 with a 3.23 ERA in 46 games. “He should be ready for us the day he can come off the injured list.”