Thursday's game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds has seen ticket prices explode as demand has surged to a massive degree compared to any other normal weekday game.

This is because the Dodgers are giving away the first of two Shohei Ohtani bobbleheads this season. The first 40,000 fans in attendance will receive the first official Shohei Ohtani Dodgers bobblehead, with 1,700 fans randomly receiving a bobblehead of Ohtani in the away gray jersey. The other ones are Ohtani in the home white jersey.

Lines for the Dodgers game on Thursday night were out of control.

Ezoic

On Thursday, the least expensive ticket (non-standing room only) on dodgers.com/tickets is $191. For reference, the cheapest ticket on Friday is $33.

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No word yet on what the Dodgers' Ohtani bobbleheads will sell for on the secondary memorabilia market.

Shohei Ohtani leading Dodgers to NL West lead

Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (17) on deck before batting against the San Francisco Giants during the seventh inning at Oracle Park
© John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports

The Dodgers have lived up lofty expectations so far this season. After adding Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto to their payroll, the team has come out of the gates firing. Los Angeles is currently sitting at 29-16 on the season, good for a 7.5 game lead in the National League West standings.

Clearly, it's down to Ohtani and Mookie Betts for NL MVP and it's been astonishing just how much better Ohtani's offensive production has gotten, even given the fact that Betts is a top-five hitter by most metrics. Ohtani's 1.108 OPS tops baseball by more than 70 points, his 115 total bases are 17 more than anyone else and he's even got the lead in batting average, hitting an eye-popping .361 in addition to all of the power that fans are familiar with.

Plus, DH-only Ohtani is providing a lot of surplus value on the base–more than Betts at this moment in time. He's got nine stolen bases and has only been caught once, putting him on pace for a 30-steal season. If he can hit 50 homers, steal 35 bases and top 400 total bases, Ohtani really can take home an MVP as a DH, even with the incredible output of his teammate at a more valuable position.