Editorials

Cody Bellinger Bombs: Chronicling Dodgers Home Run 69

Dodgers Nation will be writing about ‘Bellinger Bombs’. The Dodgers have one of the best young power hitters in the game under contract for the foreseeable future. Writers like Sam Miller have asked the question ‘What if Cody Bellinger is going to break the all-time home run record’. As the career home runs continue to pile up, we will examine each one in greater detail. We will allow you; the fan, to savor each one as they should be. Because what’s more fun than a home run? (You can look back at the collection here). 

Obviously it’s hard to pick a single Cody Bellinger home run which represents my favorite. Indeed, this one had all the fixings and will be memorable for a few reasons.

First, it had a little history.

Second, it came against the Giants. Third, it was another grand slam. Moreover, it was launched off Madison Bumgarner. What more could one ask for? For the time being, Bellinger is at the zenith of the baseball universe. Without further adieu, let’s Bellinger bomb this post!

The Home Run

What a picture perfect swing off a left-handed pitcher. This ball traveled to straightaway center at Chavez Ravine – a sign the hitter was right on time and drove it to the deepest part of the yard. One could watch this a dozen times and not feel fulfilled, so go right ahead and enjoy yourself.

While we already mentioned the history above, there is more business to conduct within this space. This was Bellinger’s 19th career home run off left-handed pitching, and his 35th at Dodger Stadium. His fourth grand slam of his career was his 10th to dead center. He’s not homered a dozen times in the third inning of a game.

Bellinger moves into 46th place on the all-time Dodgers list by himself. Next up is James Loney.

How Bellinger’s Home Run Impacted The Game


You could call this one ‘the big swing’, because Bellinger grabbed momentum for the Dodgers with this home run. By far and away his most important blast of the season it was.

Before the grand slam, the Dodgers held a 1-0 lead and were a win expectancy of 69 percent. After the blast, the Dodgers led 5-0 and things felt comfortable and enjoyable, with an expectancy of 93 percent. That 24 percent swing is obviously one of the more leveraged homers of Bellinger’s career. Surely, things got interesting late due to the bullpen’s gaffe. However, the Dodgers hung on to win 6-5.

The Victim

Madison Bumgarner, welcome to the club buddy. I always knew you would make a stop in these parts, but this comes a whole lot later than a gang of people thought. I’ll stop quoting Carlito’s Way now (great flick), and get down to business.

Bumgarner has had a long and storied career, and he’s one of the better big game hurlers that Bellinger has added to the list. This was the 164th home run Bumgarner has allowed in his career. It is important to note that Bumgarner has never won a Cy Young Award, which might surprise some people. However, he is 110-85 lifetime with a 3.02 ERA to go along with 1604 strikeouts in 1651 innings pitched.

The guy has an impressive resume, and we won’t discredit him out of class. Bellinger did the job for us.

Exit Velocity, Distance, Pitch Data, and Angle

Bellinger caught a cutter that got a little too much of the plate, and it would never live to tell it’s own story again. Smoked into the Los Angeles night at 108 miles per hour, the ball traveled 412 feet. Barrel met ball and just listen to the sound! The ball was 23 degrees at it’s highest point. This was a line shot rocket of a home run.

Overall Bellinger Bomb Prominence Score

This was a huge home run, and you had to know when you clicked the column it was going to score well. We feel that we don’t give out a perfect score easily, but this one has all the makings of what you want in a Bellinger Bomb. From history, to in front of a home crown, bases juiced, the pitcher he faced. Oh yes, this one had it all.

Dodgers Nation Prominence Score: 10.0(!)

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Staff Writer

Staff Writer features content written by our site editors along with our staff of contributing writers. Thank you for your readership.

8 Comments

  1. For the first time I believe, I heard the Giants announcer Krukow actually say that Dodger Stadium is hitter friendly now….for me, Bellinger’s Slam was off a LHP and it was Bumgarner and that made my evening for me.

      1. Consider that before it truly was a pitcher’s park before 1969 when they moved home plate 10 FT. closer to CF reducing the CF from 410 FT. to 400 FT from home plate .. However that was still not much of a difference because the fences were still about 2 FT. taller back then. The real change came before the 1973 season when they lowered the fences and moved them in all around by another 5 FT. Now CF is only 395 FT from home plate. And I have noticed since then many many HR’s hit by either side that would still have been just long loud fly outs in the original OF dimensions.

  2. Any park that we win by hitting a grand slam is a hitters park in my book

    1. Love the caption on the video “You asked to see the boss so they sent me” -@Dodgers 🙂

  3. Well…….they can try and diminish what Cody is doing if they want, they hate all Dodger success stories……..but if he were wearing a halloweeny uni they would be telling you he is the second coming of Willie McCovey and not how small our park is suddenly playing…….it’s ok, really……The Big Dodger in the sky blessed us with another great Dodger farm hand who is becoming a STAR! You go Cody!

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