LOS ANGELES -- Shohei Ohtani clobbered his 300th career home run in the first inning of the Los Angeles Dodgers' 4-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night, a 409-foot, 112 mph drive to the opposite field.
If you include pitching starts in which he wasn't in the lineup, which is how the feat is measured historically, Ohtani reached the benchmark in his 1,121st game. Only six players have accumulated 300 home runs in fewer games -- Aaron Judge, Ralph Kiner, Ryan Howard, Juan Gonzalez, Alex Rodriguez and Giancarlo Stanton.
Ohtani is the first player in major league history with 300 home runs and 100 stolen bases within his first nine seasons, according to ESPN Research -- he's also the only one, aside from Babe Ruth, to do a lot of it while juggling pitching.
Ohtani is the 170th player in MLB history to reach 300 homers, and he did it just two days after his 32nd birthday. Over the past five years, he has averaged 47 home runs per season. Five hundred seems well within reach.
"He's still young, still strong," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "I definitely think 500 is in his future."
In his more immediate future, though, is pitching.
Ohtani has fully recovered from a biceps injury that forced him to exit a recent game early and is lined up to make his last pitching start before the All-Star break on Friday.
Ohtani was replaced by a pinch hitter in the bottom of the seventh of Friday's game against the San Diego Padres after feeling tightness in his right biceps while hitting in the prior inning. The Dodgers followed by giving him the day off on Saturday, and Roberts mentioned the possibility of skipping his next pitching start, too.
It seems that will no longer be necessary.
"As he goes through the next couple days, if he doesn't feel great, we'll pivot, and we're prepared to pivot," Roberts said before Tuesday's game. "But as we sit here, I don't see that changing."
Ohtani, slashing .294/.409/.541 with 20 home runs as a hitter and 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA as a pitcher, was the leading vote-getter for this year's All-Star Game and will once again start at designated hitter. But he is not expected to pitch in the game, nor are the Dodgers anticipating him taking part in the Home Run Derby.
Doing so would contradict the precaution the Dodgers have taken with him as he navigates his first two-way season in three years.
"I would love it, but I do think that when you're Shohei, he understands the responsibility he has," Roberts said. "I do think that there's a middle for what's best for him, what potentially could be downside, but also what's best for the game. So, don't see him in the Home Run Derby, don't see him pitching, but I do see him taking an at-bat or two."