Shohei Ohtani notched the 1,000th hit of his Major League Baseball career in impressive style on Wednesday, with a two-run homer as part of an impressive two-day display that could not get the Los Angeles Dodgers past St. Louis.
In his starting pitcher’s role, Ohtani struck out eight and allowed just two infield singles in four dominant innings.
And at the plate he notched his milestone homer in the third inning, a two-run blast that put Los Angeles up 2-1. It was his 39th home run of the season, one behind National League leader Kyle Schwarber and three behind MLB leader Cal Raleigh.
The Dodgers could not hold on to their early lead, however, as the Cardinals rallied for a 5-3 victory at Dodger Stadium.
But Ohtani joined newly minted Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui as the only Japanese-born players to reach 1,000 hits in the major leagues.
Ichiro finished his career with 3,089 and Matsui with 1,253.