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Cody Bellinger proved to be the hero in Wednesday night’s game against the Diamondbacks, hitting a walk-off homer in the 10th inning. This walk-off home run doubled as his 29th dinger of the season, which surpassed Duke Snider and Gil Hodges for Dodgers player with the most home runs before the All-Star break.
Earlier in the game, Bellinger tied the record (28) with a homer in the second inning.
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But wait, there is so much more to this story.
Not only did it make Dodgers history, but it was his second-straight game with a walk-off RBI. Just one night prior, he drew the fifth-straight walk to bring in the game-winning run.
Bringing this back from an earlier discussion last homestand, Cody Bellinger is the first Dodger with a walk-off RBI in consecutive games since Andre Ethier a decade ago, June 5-6, 2009
— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) July 4, 2019
Also, Bellinger’s walk-off homer contributed to the fifth consecutive walk-off victory at home. The Dodgers became the fifth team in the live-ball era to do this. The Oakland Athletics were the last team to do this, with five-straight walk-off wins in 2004.
Circling back to Bellinger’s performance, he is the player of the series in this two-game set with the D-Backs for his clutch performances. In game one, he showed patience at the plate by drawing the game-winning walk in a wild one, and for his monster home run in game two, which recently just landed, causing an earthquake in California.
Though this series is just a small sample size of the amazing season Bellinger is having, it goes to show he is a serious front runner for the MVP race. After all, “MVP” chants at Dodger Stadium are becoming a regular occurrence.