Cody Bellinger not in lineup for third straight game

It appears the Dodgers are being extra cautious with Cody Bellinger. For the third straight game, Dave Roberts didn’t pencil Bellinger into the lineup.

“He’s going to go out there and run today and see how it responds,” Roberts said when speaking with reporters on Monday. “We were initially hopeful it was going to be a day or two, but as the days have progressed there hasn’t been a whole lot of improvement. Even tomorrow, it’s unlikely he’ll be in there. Best-case scenario would be Wednesday before the off-day.”

Bellinger left Friday night’s game after experiencing hamstring tightness. Roberts said the original plan was to rest Bellinger on Saturday anyway, but he wasn’t used at all on Sunday. Following Sunday’s win, Roberts said they wanted to try and stay away from Bellinger after he didn’t feel 100 percent prior to the game.

Roberts added that Bellinger ran at about 80 percent, but they don’t want him back until he can do so at 100 percent. By the sound of it, he’ll likely be out until at least Friday when the Dodgers play in Arizona.

Putting him on the Injured List has been discussed, but Roberts said they don’t need to make that decision now.

“It’s a thought,” Roberts said. “Today will be pretty telling, but we don’t need to make that decision right now.”

Bellinger is going to test his hamstring while running and fielding to see how it responds.

It’s been a rough 2021 for Bellinger, to say the least. He missed about half of spring training due to offseason surgery. After appearing to finally get in the swing of things, he was placed on the IL and missed nearly two months with a leg injury. Now, he’s dealing with this hamstring issue.

“There’s got to be frustration in there,” Roberts said of Bellinger. “There’s still a lot of baseball for him to put together a really nice season and help us win games.”