News On Japan

Ohtani Shohei wins National League's homerun, RBI titles

Oct 02 (NHK) - Major League Baseball star Ohtani Shohei of the Los Angeles Dodgers has won the National League's home run and RBI titles.

The performance of individual players was finalized after the last game of the regular season on Monday.

Ohtani hit 54 home runs, 15 more than Marcell Ozuna of the Atlanta Braves who had the second most. This is Ohtani's second consecutive league home run crown following last season when he was with the Los Angeles Angels in the American League. He is the fourth person to win the title in both leagues.

Ohtani also had 130 RBIs. That was 18 more than Willy Adames of the Milwaukee Brewers who finished second. He is the first Japanese player to clinch this title.

Ohtani had the league's second best batting average at .310 after Luis Arraez of the San Diego Padres who topped the list at .314.

Ohtani also came in second in stolen bases, with 59, after Elly De La Cruz of the Cincinnati Reds who swiped 67.

The superstar topped the league with 134 runs, a .390 on-base average and an on-base plus slugging percentage of 1.036, meaning that he had an outstanding offensive performance.

After undergoing surgery on his right elbow last year, the two-way player focused on batting this season and ended with extraordinary statistics.

US media report that Ohtani may be the leading candidate for the league's MVP award. If he wins the award, it would be his third MVP, including two titles in the American League.

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