CHICAGO — In his 79th game with the Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani has set a new franchise record.
Ohtani crushed a leadoff home run in the Dodgers’ 4-0 win in the series finale on Wednesday against the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field, marking his 10th straight game in which he has recorded at least one RBI. That’s a new Dodgers record since RBIs became an official stat in 1920.
And, like Tuesday, Ohtani tallied the RBI with a leadoff home run. Only this time, the Dodgers slugger did not have to worry about missing first base. He crushed a 3-2 cutter from Chicago starter Erick Fedde a Statcast-projected 437 feet to right-center field, with a 113.9 mph exit velocity.
As his homer sailed out on, he took a few moments to admire it before trotting around the bases.
On Tuesday, Ohtani carried his bat with him a few feet around first base as he watched his leadoff homer just make it over the wall in right field. He also wasn’t sure if he stepped on the bag, and after advancing more than halfway to second, retreated to make sure he did.
Ohtani entered the day tied with Roy Campanella (1955), Augie Galan (1944) and Eddie Brown (1924) for the Dodgers’ record for consecutive games with an RBI in a single season. Matt Kemp pulled off the feat across two seasons, recording at least one RBI in nine straight games spanning from the end 2011 to the start of 2012.
