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Cody Bellinger has been almost literally an everyday fixture in the Dodgers lineup since his arrival in the majors on Apr. 25, but he is out of Thursday night’s starting lineup in the series finale against the Diamondbacks.
Bellinger is in a slump, going 5-for-33 (.152) without a home run in his last nine games and 39 plate appearances. He sits against Diamondbacks All-Star left-hander Robbie Ray.
Starting lineups
| Pos | D-backs | Pos | Dodgers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | D-backs | Pos | Dodgers |
| CF | Pollock | 2B | Forsythe |
| RF | Peralta (L) | SS | Seager (L) |
| 1B | Goldschmidt | 3B | Turner |
| SS | Owings | LF | Taylor |
| C | Iannetta | C | Barnes |
| 2B | Drury | 1B | Hernandez |
| 3B | Lamb (L) | RF | Puig |
| LF | Fuentes (L) | CF | Thompson |
| P | Ray (L) | P | Hill (L) |
Since Bellinger was called up from Triple-A, the Dodgers are 48-18 (.727), and Bellinger has started 64 games, including each of the last 27 contests.
The other two times that Bellinger wasn’t in the lineup, he ended up playing anyway, inserted later in the game in some capacity.
Bellinger batted cleanup for the Dodgers in each of the last 22 games, but on Thursday those duties fall on Chris Taylor, his first career start batting fourth. This season, Taylor will have now started at every batting order position, one through eight, and he has 39 career starts batting ninth.
Taylor is hitting .339/.431/.518 against left-handed pitching in 2017.
With Bellinger out, Corey Seager is the lone left-hander in the Dodgers lineup, with the usual suspects sprinkled around -- Trayce Thompson starts in center field, and Austin Barnes is behind the plate.
Kiké Hernandez starts at first base, his third game and second start at the position this season.