Ohtani enters 40/40 club with walk-off grand slam
Shohei Ohtani entered the 40/40 club in grand fashion Friday night, hitting a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning to reach 40 home runs for the season and lift the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 7-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Ohtani stole his 40th base earlier in the game, reaching on an infield single to lead off the fourth inning then stealing second during Freddie Freeman‘s at-bat.
He is the fastest player in major league history to reach the vaunted 40/40 mark, doing so in his 126th game of the season. Alfonso Soriano held the previous mark, reaching 40/40 in 147 games for the Washington Nationals in 2006.
Ohtani is the sixth major leaguer to reach the milestone, and the first Dodgers player.
“It’s really more about the winning,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “Obviously the record is part of the process, but I think the most important thing is about winning the game.”
Friday’s blast was the first walk-off homer of Ohtani’s career and his third grand slam.
“It’s just storybook — 40/40 on the same night,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I don’t know if that’s ever been done, and then he wins it with a grand slam. He’s definitely known for the dramatics, and this was something I’ll remember for a long time.”
Ohtani’s 389-foot shot snapped a 3-3 tie. Rays center fielder Jose Siri gave chase, and the ball bounced back onto the field. Siri threw the ball into the stands, so Ohtani didn’t end up with the keepsake, according to Ohtani’s interpreter, Will Ireton.
Ohtani took a curtain call as the crowd of 45,556 stood and cheered. Teammates Miguel Rojas and Teoscar Hernandez soaked him with water on the field.
“It means a tremendous amount for me to be able to do this in front of the home crowd,” Ohtani said.
Dodgers starter Bobby Miller was in the clubhouse watching on television when Ohtani made history.
“I kind of called that one,” he said. “I was like how cool would this be just to get that 40/40 on a walk-off grand slam? He’s a really special player.”
Ohtani joins Soriano, Ronald Acuna Jr., Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds and Jose Canseco in the 40/40 club. Acuna became a member last season, when he belted 41 homers and stole 73 bases.
Ohtani is on pace to be the first player with 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in a season in MLB history, according to ESPN Stats & Information. No player has had 45 homers and 45 steals in a season.
After never making the postseason in his six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels, Ohtani finds himself in a pennant race with the National League West-leading Dodgers.
“The No. 1 goal is to get to the postseason and win the World Series,” he said. “Whatever the outcome is for my record, that’s part of the process.”
Ohtani’s 12 stolen bases in August without being caught are the most in a month by a Dodgers player since Rafael Furcal was 12-for-12 in September and October 2007.
“I know that he’s taking very good care of his legs to be able to do it and be that dynamic player,” Roberts said. “He’s doing his homework on opposing pitchers, and he’s getting great jumps. He’s a much better base stealer. He’s very efficient.”
Roberts noted that earlier in the season and going back to when the Dodgers faced the Angels, Ohtani was tentative on the basepaths and his stolen base percentage wasn’t high.
“He’s an elite base stealer with a high success rate,” the manager said. “I’m sure there’ll be more dramatics to come.”
New York Yankees star Aaron Judge leads the majors with 49 homers. He’s favored to win AL MVP honors with Ohtani predicted to do the same in the NL.
“I just don’t see anyone any better,” Roberts said. “Obviously Judge is in the conversation, but man, I’d take Shohei.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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Jorge Castillo
NEW YORK — The Yankees are acquiring third baseman Ryan McMahon from the Rockies in exchange for minor league pitchers Griffin Herring and Josh Grosz, sources confirmed to ESPN on Friday.
The Yankees will assume the remainder of 30-year-old McMahon’s contract, which includes approximately $4.5 million for the remainder of 2025 and $32 million over the next two seasons.
An All-Star last season, McMahon was batting .217 with 16 home runs and a .717 OPS in 100 games for Colorado in 2025. He hit home runs in the first two games after the All-Star break and another on Tuesday and is on pace to keep his four-year 20-homer streak alive.
While the production has resulted in a 92 OPS+, which suggests McMahon has been 8% worse than the average major league hitter this season, he still represents a significant offensive upgrade at third base for New York.
The Yankees have had Oswald Peraza, one of the worst hitters in the majors, manning third base nearly every day since the club decided to release DJ LeMahieu, another former Rockies player, earlier this month and move Jazz Chisholm Jr. to second base. Peraza, while a strong defender, is slashing .147/.208/.237 in 69 games this season. His 24 wRC+ ranks last among the 310 hitters with at least 160 plate appearances this season.
Defensively, McMahon is a Gold Glove-caliber third baseman whose four Outs Above Average is third in the majors this season. He joins a Yankees club that has been marred by sloppy defense, most recently on Wednesday when it committed four errors in a defensive meltdown against the first-place Toronto Blue Jays.
Herring, 22, has recorded a 1.71 ERA in 89⅓ innings across 16 starts between Low- and High-A this season. He was a sixth-round pick out of LSU in the 2024 draft.
Grosz, an 11th-round pick in 2023, had a 4.14 ERA in 87 innings over 16 games (15 starts) for High-A Hudson Valley this season.
With third base addressed, the Yankees will continue to seek to acquire pitchers to bolster both their rotation and bullpen.
MLB.com first reported on the Yankees trading for McMahon.
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Jorge Castillo
The Mets acquired left-handed reliever Gregory Soto from the Orioles on Friday in exchange for two minor leaguers in what could be the first of multiple moves by New York to bolster its bullpen before the trade deadline Thursday.
The trade, which sent Class A right-hander Wellington Aracena and Double-A right-hander Cameron Foster to Baltimore, gives the Mets a hard-throwing left-hander to complement the club’s only lefty on the roster, Brooks Raley, who returned from Tommy John surgery last week.
Soto, who is 30 and was an All-Star with the Detroit Tigers in 2021 and 2022, has posted a 3.96 ERA with a 27.5% strikeout rate in 45 appearances this season. The Mets will be his fourth team since the 2022 season.
On Monday, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns plainly signaled that upgrading the bullpen for the stretch run is his top priority.
The need is clear. Injuries and overuse have depleted a relief corps that led the majors in bullpen ERA through May 31. Since June 1, the group has posted 4.52 ERA, good for 23rd in the majors.
Aracena, 20, is 1-1 with a 2.38 ERA in 17 games for St. Lucie. The Orioles said he is one of two pitchers in the minors this season to have thrown at least 60 innings without surrendering a home run.
Foster, 26, is 5-2 with two saves and a 2.97 ERA while pitching at the Double-A and Triple-A levels.
BOSTON — Hundreds of Aramark workers at Fenway Park are on strike and planning to stay out for all of a homestand between the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers starting Friday night.
Concession workers had set a deadline of noon Friday for Aramark and Fenway Park to reach an agreement with the Local 26 chapter of the Massachusetts and Rhode Island hotel, casino, airport and food services workers union.
The union went on strike at noon asking for “living wages, guardrails on technology and R-E-S-P-E-C-T!”
With the Red Sox and Dodgers scheduled to start at 7:10 p.m. EDT, union officials had a request for fans attending this homestand with food and beer workers on strike.
“We’re asking you to NOT buy concessions inside the ballpark,” Local 26 wrote on social media. “Tailgate before the games!”
Union workers walked the picket line wearing green T-shirts declaring “FENWAY WORKERS ON STRIKE.” They carried signs in the shape of a baseball proclaiming Local 26.
The Red Sox go out of town Monday with a game that night at Minnesota.
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