Shohei Ohtani extends on-base streak to 44 games, surpassing Ichiro Suzuki's record for Japanese players.

In today's game where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Texas Rangers 8-7, the team's two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani extended his personal consecutive on-base streak to 44 games, surpassing Ichiro Suzuki and setting the longest consecutive on-base record for Japanese players in Major League Baseball. This game also marked his first bobblehead night this season, commemorating his incredible two-way performance in Game 4 of last year's National League Championship Series, featuring a three-home run pose.

During his time with the Dodgers, Ohtani often performs well on his bobblehead nights. However, this time he extended the record in a more subdued manner, accomplishing it by hitting a single in the fifth inning against Kumar Rocker.

"I thought he would hit a home run tonight," manager Dave Roberts said with a smile, "I believe he wanted to hit a home run on his bobblehead night too, but it didn't happen."

Ohtani also leads in several other statistical categories among Japanese MLB players. While playing for the Los Angeles Angels in 2019, he became the first Japanese player to achieve a cycle. In his first year with the Dodgers in 2024, he surpassed Hideki Matsui to become the Japanese player with the most career home runs (283 and increasing), and also surpassed Ichiro Suzuki to set the single-season stolen base record for Japanese players (59 steals).

The consecutive on-base record set by Ohtani for Japanese players is also currently the longest active consecutive on-base streak in MLB. His 44-game streak ranks tied for fifth in Dodgers franchise history during the modern baseball era (since 1900), still some distance from the franchise record of 58 games held by Duke Snider.

Ohtani's last regular-season game without reaching base was on August 23 last year. Since then, he has contributed to the offense in every game, and typically his contributions are anything but "small."

This season, Ohtani started relatively quietly at the plate, with 13 hits in 49 at-bats, a .265 batting average, and only 4 extra-base hits. However, he has drawn a large number of walks, achieving an on-base percentage of .406 over 13 games.

"It's great," Roberts said, "He takes walks, hits singles, and he hasn't really hit his stride yet. We've won the games we should win, scored the runs we should score... and Ohtani hasn't fully unleashed. He will heat up eventually. That's a positive for us."