Shohei Ohtani faces one of his favorite victims in Coors

Making a mockery out of the runs leaderboard in MLB this season, Shohei Ohtani gets to hit against a familiar victim in baseball’s premier hitting ...

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What is the story about?

In between two of the most crucial series of the season against the Padres, the Shohei Ohtani-led Los Angeles Dodgers get to face baseball’s worst team, visiting the Colorado Rockies in Coors Field for the final time this year. While in previous campaigns, even when Colorado hasn’t been particularly good, the prospect of playing at Coors brought a sense of unpredictability; lately, the Rockies don’t even have that going for them, with a 19-43 home record.

Up until this point, the Dodgers have done

what is expected of them, beating the Rockies all six times these teams have met, outscoring Colorado 39 to 21. Carrying a tentative lead in the NL West, this team can ill afford to drop off following an emotionally charged series against the Padres.

While the time isn’t necessarily the most adequate to closely monitor individual feats amidst a fiercely contested battle for the NL West crown, a long series in Coors leads us to touch base on a potential accomplishment for Ohtani. The reigning NL MVP, historically, to the surprise of zero people, has been a destroyer of worlds at Coors Field (.782 SLG in 72 PA). These four games in Colorado might prove key in whether he’s able to score the most runs in a single season in the 21st century.

Since 2001, no player has ever scored 150 runs in a single season, with Ronald Acuña Jr.’s 149 in his magical 2023 representing the max. Jeff Bagwell was the last to do it back in 2000 with exactly 150. Ohtani has been out of this world in the run-scoring department in 2025, coming into this series with 118, 22 more than any other big leaguer. This current number puts Ohtani on pace for right around 150 for the year. A four-game set at Coors Field is the perfect opportunity to turn a possibility into a likely outcome.

The first game of this series comes against a pitcher who legitimately might be better off intentionally walking Ohtani to start the game and going on from there. Kyle Freeland has faced Ohtani six times, and the reigning NL MVP is 4 for 6 against him with a pair of long balls and one double for good measure. The sample size might be small, but you can be certain Freeland is painfully aware of it.