LOS ANGELES — Dodger Stadium, packed with over 50,000 people for the second straight night, erupted.
The player Dodger fans have watched since he was a 21-year-old Rookie of the Year did it again, and he did it to the Giants. They chanted his name.
Co-dy, Co-dy, Co-dy!
Cody Bellinger stood on the top step of Los Angeles’ dugout and tipped his cap to the fans.
“That’s one of the best feelings right there,” Bellinger said on the home team’s broadcast with a grin.
He’d just blasted the game-breaking grand slam off Sam Long in the eighth inning, adding to a growing list of clutch performances against the Giants. He smiled as he trotted back out to left field, his team up four runs.
The Giants didn’t lose to the Dodgers Friday night because they pinch-hit rookie David Villar for Brandon Belt. They didn’t lose because Belt’s replacement in the field, LaMonte Wade Jr., let a ball squirt through his legs. Or because of the hit-by-pitch that loaded the bases in the eighth.
They lost, 5-1, because Bellinger showed up in another massive moment. Is there a bigger active Giants heel than the hop-stepping, curtain-calling, grand-slamming former MVP?
The Giants’ mantra — starting with their manager — revolves around not getting too high or too low. Bellinger, as an individual, is the antithesis to that.
The 26-year-old has completed two All-Star seasons, including an MVP campaign in 2019. He also had a 44 OPS+ in 2021 — 100 is the MLB average.
Bellinger’s ceiling is the best of the best, and his floor is sea level.
Last regular season, the Giants appeared to have solved Bellinger. The outfielder went 2-for-48 against San Francisco, a .042 average that would make him statistically the worst hitter to pick up a bat.
But then in the NLDS, Bellinger drove in three runs on four hits. He knocked in the series-clinching run off closer Camilo Doval in the ninth inning of Game 5.
And now it feels like Bellinger has adjusted. Has anything changed with how Giants pitchers are attacking Bellinger?
“I think we’re approaching him in the right way, we’re just not executing enough pitches,” SF manager Gabe Kapler said postgame.
In his career against Long before Friday, Bellinger had a double and a walk in five plate appearances. Long said he didn’t recall Bellinger ever squaring up his curve before.
The southpaw’s hook is, in fact, his most effective pitch. Baseball Savant places a -3 run value on Long’s curve, which holds hitters to a .172 average.
Still, even if his 0-for-3 start didn’t show it, Bellinger was seeing the ball well. After going down 0-2 when he wasn’t ready for Long’s quick-pitch, Bellinger locked in.
He fouled off three straight 0-2 offerings: curveball, fastball, changeup. He wasn’t letting anything by him.
Then Long’s sixth pitch of the battle dropped down into the middle of the strike zone.
“Wanted that ball down,” Long said postgame. “It caught too much plate. Looking back, I told myself not to give him too much to hit there in an 0-2 count. Just didn’t execute.”
Had Long’s curve landed in the dirt, perhaps Bellinger would have taken one of his wild hacks and stranded the bases loaded.
Leaving a curveball over the plate isn’t the strategy against anyone. Neither is letting a grounder through your legs or plunking a hitter with two men on. Human error is part of baseball.
Piping pitches down the middle to Bellinger, at this point, will only further ingratiate him as a Giant-killer.
