LOS ANGELES -- Shohei Ohtani is only in his second year with the Dodgers, but he's already put himself in some exclusive company in franchise history.
Ohtani slugged his 40th home run of the season, a solo shot off Chris Bassitt that sailed a Statcast-projected 417 feet to straightaway center at 107.8 mph off the bat, to give the Dodgers some breathing room before the bats broke out in Saturday's 9-1 win over the Blue Jays at Dodger Stadium.
"That was one of those swings where he was behind the ball. He stayed into the ground," manager Dave Roberts said. "I know he and the hitting guys have been working on some things mechanically. That was as good of a swing as you’re going to see."
The blast gave Ohtani back-to-back seasons with at least 40 homers, and he joined a short list of Dodgers who have had multiple such seasons:
- Duke Snider, five from 1953-57
- Gil Hodges, two in 1951 and ’54
- Shawn Green, two from 2001-02
Having reached 40 homers in 117 team games, Ohtani is the fastest to the benchmark in Dodgers history.
Ohtani has gone deep at least 40 times in three straight seasons. He's currently the only active player with four 40-homer seasons, although the Yankees' Aaron Judge and perhaps the Mets' Pete Alonso have a shot at getting there this year as well.
The booming blast off Ohtani's bat gave the Dodgers a 3-0 lead over the Blue Jays in the fifth. One inning earlier, Max Muncy opened the scoring by going the other way for a two-run shot, his third home run since returning from the injured list on Monday.
First came the long balls. Then the Dodgers used small ball to put away the Blue Jays.
Dalton Rushing, Mookie Betts and Andy Pages knocked in two runs apiece in a six-run sixth inning. It was the most runs the Dodgers had scored in an inning since June 24 (six-run fourth in Colorado), and it had been nearly as long since the Dodgers had won back-to-back games at home (July 1-3 vs. White Sox).
"I think we just had the mindset of moving the bat along the lineup and just passing it one at a time," Rushing said. "When we do things like that, play small ball, take advantage of little mistakes that they make, take advantage of situations, whatever the game gives us, I think we're very hard to beat."
The outburst was more than enough to help the Dodgers take their first two games against the Blue Jays and back Blake Snell, who struck out 10 across five scoreless innings and picked up his first win since his season debut in his second start back from a four-month injured list stint.
Snell's return made the rotation as strong as it has been all season. Muncy's return lengthened the lineup and has already led to better results up and down the lineup. The Dodgers are still missing some key pieces in the bullpen, but they've been firing on all cylinders against the team with the best record in the American League.
"To have a [starting pitcher] that's just dominant out there definitely takes the pressure off of us and lets us just kind of get into our at-bats and do our thing," said Michael Conforto, who exited after being hit by a pitch on his right knee but feels fine. "A lot of good things, all the way up and down the lineup."
Especially key has been Ohtani and Betts -- as well as Freddie Freeman -- getting going at the same time at the top of the order.
Ohtani's overall numbers have dropped off since his return to pitching in June, but he's riding an eight-game hitting streak in which he's gone 14-for-31 and scored 10 runs. Betts' recent success comes in a smaller sample, but after a five-game hitless streak, he's gone 7-for-17 and knocked in five runs.
"I think when Mookie was scuffling, there was a concerted effort to either have Shohei chase or pitch around him … the way Mookie was going," Roberts said. "So now when you’ve got Mookie and they pitch around him, to then drive in a run in that spot. Just to have good at-bats, it adds that energy and length to our lineup."