{"id":665758,"date":"2026-04-06T03:31:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/665758\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T03:31:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:31:28","slug":"shohei-ohtani-is-entering-rare-ichiro-suzuki-territory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/665758\/","title":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani Is Entering Rare Ichiro Suzuki Territory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"62\">Los Angeles Dodgers two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani didn&#8217;t get off to the start offensively that many expected. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"65\">Ohtani didn&#8217;t hit his first homer of the season until April 3. But, it <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TalkinBaseball_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2040887593005445364%7Ctwgr%5Ecdd657a91beee9f95ef713245c98beef342b6c86%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsi.voltax.io%2Fcms%2Feditor%2Ffastball%2F01knerjkp0n4\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">didn&#8217;t take him long<\/a> to log his second. On Sunday, the Dodgers superstar blasted his second homer of the season against the Washington Nationals. <\/p>\n<p>The Dodgers superstar continues to make history<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01kng70etjynd7y7wde8.jpg\" alt=\"Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani\" title=\"Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani\" width=\"7386\" height=\"4154\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"6i\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Apr 4, 2026; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (17) on the field against the Washington Nationals during the ninth inning at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-Imagn Images | Brad Mills-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p lang=\"et\" dir=\"ltr\">Shohei Ohtani destroyed this baseball <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bK2JKjBEFW\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/bK2JKjBEFW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Talkin&#8217; Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TalkinBaseball_\/status\/2040887593005445364?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 5, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6p\">Ohtani blasted 55 homers in 2025 and while it took him a bit to get his first of the 2026 season, he looks like he&#8217;s starting to find his form. One thing that is important to mention is that while he hasn&#8217;t been tearing the cover off the ball, Ohtani has still been getting on base. In fact, he has gotten on base at least once each game this season. His on-base streak extends to the end of the 2025 season and he&#8217;s approaching legendary status. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6s\"><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/francysromerofr\/status\/2040889381284618585?s=46&amp;t=1axbu4kIdSxOTL4Hz62e5g\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Francys Romero of Beisbolfr.com<\/a> shared on X on Sunday night that Ohtani is approaching some Major League Baseball history. He extended his on-base streak to 40 games and tied Ichiro Suzuki for the second-longest on-base streak for a Japanese-born player in MLB history. The record is actually held by Suzuki, who went 43 games straight getting on base in 2009.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6v\">&#8220;Shohei Ohtani extended his on-base streak to 40 consecutive games,&#8221; Romero wrote. &#8220;Japanese-born players with the longest on-base streaks in MLB history: Ichiro Suzuki: 43 (2009), Ichiro Suzuki: 40 (2004), Shohei Ohtani: 40 (2025-2026).&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6y\">So, even in a season in which Ohtani has seemingly started slowly offensively, he has still been playing at a level that is historic. It&#8217;s just another example of why Ohtani is at a different level than most players who have ever touched a Major League Baseball field. Sure, Ohtani is a two-way player. That idea in itself has gotten plenty of buzz over the years. But it&#8217;s more than just that. He&#8217;s historically good in both ways. Offensively, he&#8217;s one of the best players in the game. When he&#8217;s healthy, he&#8217;s among the best pitchers in the game as well. Blend both together and we&#8217;re talking about someone who is doing things that have never been done before. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"71\">Who else can seemingly struggle offensively and yet approach a record held by a Hall of Famer? There isn&#8217;t anyone else. Ohtani is starting to get hot as well offensively. The Dodgers need him with Mookie Betts going down and he&#8217;s looking the part now. <\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Dodgers two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani didn&#8217;t get off to the start offensively that many expected. Ohtani&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2406],"tags":[5,39,1165,4332,4333,774,57,3224,4331,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-665758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-dodgers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-dodgers","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-dodgers","12":"tag-ladodgers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangelesdodgers","17":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116355655078463315","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}