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Cody Bellinger continued his power barrage on Monday, and with home runs in his first two at-bats against the Mets joined select company with his 20th and 21st home runs.
Bellinger is the fastest in MLB history to 21 home runs, doing so in 51 games. The previous record was held by Wally Berger (1930). Bellinger tied for the fastest to 20 career home runs, a record jointly held by Berger and Gary Sanchez (2015-16).
Bellinger shattered the Dodgers franchise record of fastest to 20 home runs, which used to be 91 games by Frank Howard from 1958-60.
Most Dodgers rookie HR
| Player | Age | Year | HR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Age | Year | HR |
| Mike Piazza | 24 | 1993 | 35 |
| Joc Pederson | 23 | 2015 | 26 |
| Corey Seager | 22 | 2016 | 26 |
| Del Bissonette | 28 | 1928 | 25 |
| Johnny Frederick | 27 | 1929 | 24 |
| Frank Howard | 23 | 1960 | 23 |
| Cody Bellinger | 21 | 2017 | 21 |
| Greg Brock | 26 | 1983 | 20 |
| Eric Karros | 24 | 1992 | 20 |
But by confining all of his home runs to one season, Bellinger is just the ninth Dodgers rookie to hit 20 home runs. Amazingly, this is the third straight season a Dodgers rookie has done so, with Joc Pederson (2015) and Corey Seager (2016) each hitting 26 home runs in their first season.
Mike Piazza still holds the Dodgers rookie record with 35 home runs, and is the only one with more than 26 home runs in that first year. Bellinger still has 91 games remaining this season to continue climbing the list.
Monday was Bellinger’s fifth multi-homer game, tying Piazza’s Dodgers rookie record. Bellinger is the first player in MLB history with five multi-homer games in his first 51 games. The previous record for fastest to five multi-homer games was 84 games, by Mark McGwire.
With 21 home runs since his call up on Apr. 25 and the Dodgers through 71 team games, Bellinger is on pace for 58 home runs this season.
Bellinger’s power surge is memorable not just among Dodgers rookies. Only eight other Dodgers in any season have hit 20 home runs in the first 71 team games, and Bellinger was handicapped by spending the first 20 games of 2017 in Triple-A.
At the moment, Bellinger leads the National League lead in home runs, with one more than Eric Thames of the Brewers. Again, Bellinger missed the first 20 games of the season.