Shohei Ohtani moves closer to 50-50 as Dodgers defeat Cubs

Shohei Ohtani continued his march toward baseball’s first-ever 50-50 season, belting his career-best 47th home run, stealing his 48th base and driving in three runs, and Tommy Edman hit two homers for the second straight game to lead the Dodgers to a 10-8 victory over the Chicago Cubs in Chavez Ravine on Wednesday night.

The score was tied 7-7 in the seventh when Will Smith hit a one-out double to right-center and took third on Max Muncy’s groundout. Miguel Rojas walked, and Gavin Lux, who entered as a pinch-hitter in the fifth, lined a clutch two-out single to center field to score Smith for an 8-7 lead.

Edman, who homered from the right side of the plate in the first inning, followed with a two-run homer to right — this one from the left side — for two big insurance runs and a 10-7 Dodgers lead.

Evan Phillips rebounded from Tuesday night’s blown save to retire the side in order in the eighth, and Michael Kopech survived a harrowing ninth inning, as the Dodgers pushed their National League West lead to five games and reduced their magic number to clinch the division to 12 with 16 games to play.

Kopech, who gave up one earned run in his first 17 innings with the Dodgers, walked three batters to open the ninth before getting Isaac Paredes to hit a sacrifice fly to right. The Cubs gifted the Dodgers an out when Seiya Suzuki was thrown out attempting to steal third. Michael Busch struck out to end the game.

Dodgers right-hander Bobby Miller probably pitched his way out of a potential postseason rotation spot with his second straight shoddy start, giving up six runs and five hits — two of them homers — walking four and striking out two in 4⅓ innings to boost his ERA to 8.17 in 12 starts.

Miller, who was rocked for seven runs and three homers in a 10-1 loss to the Angels on Sept. 4, issued a pair of two-out walks and gave up an RBI single to Paredes and an RBI double to Busch to put the Dodgers in a 2-0 hole in the first.

But the Dodgers teed off on Cubs left-hander Jordan Wicks during a four-homer, six-hit bottom of the first to take a 5-2 lead. Ohtani led off with a 118-mph laser into the right-center field seats for his 47th homer of the season, tying him with Cody Bellinger for third place on the franchise’s all-time single-season home run list.

Teoscar Hernández, returning to the lineup after missing four games because of a bruised left foot, singled with two outs. Edman hit a two-run homer to left, Smith hit a solo shot to left, and Muncy hit a towering shot to right, the second time this season the Dodgers have hit three straight homers and four homers in an inning.

Suzuki’s solo homer to right off Miller cut the deficit to 5-3 in the third, but Ohtani followed Muncy’s walk and Rojas’ single with a two-out, two-run single to center — this hit left his bat at 111.6 mph — to push the lead to 7-3 in the bottom of the third.

But Miller, reliever Daniel Hudson and second baseman Chris Taylor conspired to cough up the lead in the fifth. Ian Happ led off with a bloop single to left, Dansby Swanson walked, Suzuki popped out, and Bellinger smashed a three-run homer to left-center — his 17th of the season — to move the Cubs to within 7-6.

Hudson replaced Miller and walked two batters. Nico Hoerner hit a potential double-play grounder to Taylor, but the ball caromed off his glove and into right field for an error that loaded the bases.

Pete Crow-Armstrong grounded an RBI single to right for a 7-7 tie but ran to second while Busch was being held at third. Busch was thrown out in a rundown between home and third, and Christian Bethancourt struck out to end the inning.

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Ohtani’s performance improved his standing in his spirited battle with New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor for the NL most valuable player award.

Ohtani, the American League MVP in 2021 and 2023, has had the superior offensive season, with a .292 average, .992 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 47 homers, 30 doubles, seven triples, 104 RBIs, 116 runs, 48 stolen bases in 52 attempts, 74 walks and 146 strikeouts in 143 games.

Lindor entered play Thursday with a .268 average, .832 OPS, 31 homers, 28 doubles, one triple, 85 RBIs, 102 runs, 27 stolen bases in 31 attempts, 54 walks and 122 strikeouts in 146 games.

But while Ohtani has been relegated to designated hitter while he recovers from Tommy John surgery, Lindor has played Gold Glove-caliber defense at a premium position, racking up an NL-leading 17 outs above average according to Fangraphs.

Both players have kept their teams in playoff contention, but Ohtani, who hopes to join Frank Robinson as the only players to win MVPs in both leagues, could become the first major leaguer to hit 50 homers and steal 50 bases in a season.

“I think it’s a good debate,” manager Dave Roberts said, when asked about a DH winning the MVP over a position player. “I sort of equate it to a pitcher winning the MVP. If you separate yourself enough from the field, I think it deserves some worthy consideration.

“And when you’re talking about someone who is close to doing something that’s never been done, a 50-50 season, for me, that’s separating yourself from the field.”

Ohtani and Lindor were ranked first and second in the NL in wins above replacement, Ohtani (7.2) holding an edge over Lindor (6.5) in Baseball Reference’s version of the all-encompassing metric, and Lindor (7.2) leading Ohtani (6.8) in the Fangraphs model.

“With all we’ve gone through, Shohei hitting leadoff and doing what he’s done has allowed us to stay above water,” Roberts said. “Him being able to take down 600 plate appearances and have an unprecedented season has been very valuable.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.