Ohtani Passes 500 RBIs in MLB Career

Los Angeles, July 2 (Jiji Press)--Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani hit a two-run homer at a home game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday, marking his 500th and 501st runs batted in during his Major League Baseball career.

He became the third Japanese player to pass 500 RBIs in MLB. Of the other two, Hideki Matsui, who played for the New York Yankees and other teams, scored a total of 760 RBIs in his MLB career, and Ichiro Suzuki earned 780 RBIs in total at teams including the Seattle Mariners. Both Matsui and Suzuki have retired.

This season, Ohtani has logged 64 RBIs, the third most in the National League, while hitting a league-leading 27 homers and scoring a batting average of .320, also the highest in the league.

He scored his first RBI in MLB on April 3, 2018, when he was a member of the Los Angeles Angels in the American League, in a game against the Cleveland Indians, now the Cleveland Guardians. Ohtani started to play for the Dodgers this season after working for the Angels, his first team in MLB, for six seasons until 2023.

During his five seasons at the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, a Japanese professional baseball team, Ohtani recorded 166 RBIs.

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