Shohei Ohtani hits 53rd home run of 2025

LOS ANGELES — If you ask around the Dodgers, there’s no real debate to be had. Shohei Ohtani should be this year’s National League MVP.

They mean no disrespect to Kyle Schwarber, who was just in town with the Phillies earlier this week. He’s having an excellent season at the plate. But when it comes to impacting a team on both sides of the ball, no one is doing it quite like Ohtani.

“With what he’s done with the bat and now what he’s done on the mound,” manager Dave Roberts said a few days ago, “it’s a landslide. It’s a no-brainer. The only thing is, I hope some of those voters don’t get voter fatigue just because it’s the easiest option. Itâ€s the right option.”

Ohtani and Schwarber are neck-and-neck in one area of their game: the long ball. Ohtani went the other way for his 53rd of the season in Saturday night’s 7-5 win over the Giants at Dodger Stadium, tying Schwarber atop the NL leaderboard.

With Los Angeles closing in on another NL West title, maintaining a four-game lead over San Diego with Saturday’s win, individual feats are not top of mind with seven games remaining in the regular season. This is the time when the Dodgers are looking to play their best baseball — and when Ohtani goes, so does his team.

“I love when Shohei uses the whole field because he’s strong enough to hit the ball out anywhere,” Roberts said. “He’s just dangerous. … This September, I think that it’s been his best month.”

After the Dodgers had come all the way back from trailing by four runs before they even stepped to the plate, Ohtani gave them some breathing room in the sixth inning. He drove a 2-2 heater from reliever Joel Peguero into the seats in left-center to lead off the inning. At 99.9 mph, the pitch was the third fastest that Ohtani has homered off in his career.

As the two-way superstar rounded the bases, he set one record and continued to build on another. Ohtani’s 29 homers at Dodger Stadium this year are the most in a single season in the ballpark’s history, surpassing his own 28 from last year. Once he touched the plate, he added to his L.A.-era Dodgers record with his 141st run scored.

Ohtani is the third Major Leaguer in the past 20 years to score 140-plus runs in a season, joining Ronald Acuña Jr. (149 in 2023) and Alex Rodriguez (143 in 2007). This season, his 1.018 OPS is second in the Majors to only the Yankees’ Aaron Judge (1.129).

In a smaller sample, Ohtani has been just as dominant on the mound. He has a 3.29 ERA in 13 appearances, and even created a new sort of 50-50 club with 54 punchouts to go with his 53 homers.

Ohtani is lined up for one final regular-season start on Tuesday at Chase Field. Roberts doesn’t anticipate shuffling the rotation in the final week of the season, which would mean that Ohtani would be in line to start a potential NL Wild Card Series Game 1 the following week on Sept. 30.

That’s the type of value that no other player in the Majors has to offer right now.

“I haven’t looked up any deep numbers or anything like that, but I think [the MVP is] Shohei,” said starter Tyler Glasnow, who followed a four-run first with four scoreless innings on Saturday. “He pitches and hits. I think it’s obviously Shohei, in my mind.”

The home run race could be anyone’s game. Ohtani has topped out at six homers in a seven-game span this season. Interestingly, it’s the same number for Schwarber, and both did so in roughly the same stretch of games after the All-Star break.

Those past numbers are not predictive, but both sluggers are capable of putting on quite the power show in this final week.

Ohtani is also on the verge of tying his career high in homers. That would mean he would also match, and have the chance to surpass, the Dodgers’ single-season home run mark, which he set last year with 54.

“I think that the home run title will be great. But I think it’s just a byproduct of taking good at-bats, and he’s playing to win,” Roberts said. “If there’s a walk that’s needed and they’re not pitching to him, he’s taking his walks. And if they make a mistake, he’s making them pay.”

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