Editorials

Cody Bellinger Bombs: Chronicling Home Runs 53 and 54 in Dodgers Win

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). 

We have often wondered how to structure this post once Cody Bellinger went deep twice in one game. Finally, that time has arrived. Bellinger homered twice against the New York Mets in the Sunday finale – a game in which the Dodgers hit seven in all and won 8-7 in 11 innings.

Bellinger is up to 15 home runs on the season. While it’s been a year of peaks and valleys for Cody, he’s right in line to amass a nice power season in his second year in the big leagues. His big weekend in the Bronx brought him tied with the team lead. Let’s take a deeper look at a very memorable Sunday afternoon in the youngster’s career.

The Home Run(s)

Home Run 53:

The scariest part of Bellinger’s first home run is it didn’t look like he got all of it. It still carried to the right-center bullpen at Citi Field, an area where you just don’t see a ton of balls get out. That is unless – they’re hit by Cody Bellinger. This is not an area of that park where you’re granted a ‘cheapie’.

Home Run 54:

The second home run of Bellinger’s afternoon was more of a taylor-made Bellinger blast. It wasn’t that different from his grand slam on Friday night. This also landed in the upper deck, and again it’s scary to think where this ball would have landed if Bellinger had gotten every stitch of it.

You know the drill by now. We look at the Bellinger home run log for all the goodies. He’s now homered 29 times on the road as opposed to 25 times at Dodger Stadium. Both home runs came off right-handers, bringing that total to 38. Bellinger now has five home runs at Citi Field, tied for second with Petco Park and only behind Chavez Ravine on where he accumulates his frequent flyer miles most often. He’s homered 15 times to the right-center gap, and 26 times to right field. The second home run came in the 8th inning, which is Bellinger’s favorite time of the game to go deep; something he’s now done 14 times.

Having hit two in one day brought Bellinger into a three-way tie for 56th place on the Dodgers’ all-time home run list at 54. With his next home run, he will pass Corey Seager and Russell Martin on the list. Paul Lo Duca, Wally Moon, and Franklin Stubbs are within his sights very soon.

How Bellinger’s Home Run(s) Impacted The Game

Home Run 53:

Bellinger’s first blast came when the game was tied 2-2. We still had a long ways to go and many homers left ahead of us. Still, the feat changed the Dodgers win expectancy from 47 percent to 61 percent, a swing of +14. This was a high-leverage spot to homer, although it didn’t hold up as the winning run or anything.

Home Run 54:

Bellinger’s second home run seemed bigger than the first. Surprisingly, it had less impact on the game. He stepped to the plate with the Dodgers up 6-4 and we all felt when he went deep like it was the dagger. The Dodgers held a win expectancy of 86 percent before the ball landed in the Citi Field upper deck, and that changed to 93 percent afterwards. Kevin Plawecki’s home run the next inning brought things back to even, until Justin Turner had his say in the top of the 11th inning.

The Victim(s)

We would like you to meet Mets pitchers Tim Peterson and Anthony Swarzak. They are the latest duo to end up victimized by a Bellinger bomb. Peterson is a 27-year old who was appearing in his sixth career game. He’s pitched well in limited duty this year, with an ERA of 1.86 and a WHIP of 0.82 so far in 9 and 2/3 innings. This was the second home run Peterson allowed in his career.

Mr. Swarzak has a more lengthy big league resumé. Swarzak is considered a decent big league reliever, and actually held the role of the Mets closer while Jherys Familia was injured. He was a second-round draft pick by the Minnesota Twins back in 2004. Swarzak has allowed 70 long balls in 573 big league innings. His lifetime ERA is 4.24 to go with a 23-31 record and three career saves.

Neither of these guys probably end up Hall of Fame pitchers, but they have quality stuff.

Exit Velocity, Distance, Pitch Data, and Angle

Home Run 53:

Bellinger caught a 91 mile per hour fastball off Peterson, and this graphic shows an error. The ball was over 400 feet in distance but was not officially measured at 484 feet unfortunately. It was 102 miles per hour off the bat and was more of a line-drive in nature, reaching just 27 degrees launch angle at it’s highest point. The official distance was 415 feet, which is still a prolific home run.

Home Run 54:

The second home run looked a lot further than 368 feet – which is probably due to it having a 38 degree angle at it’s highest point. This marks the highest home run that Bellinger has hit in 2018. It came off a 92.4 mile per hour four-seam fastball from Swarzak, and also had an exit velocity of 102 miles per hour.

Bellinger’s Louisville Slugger served him well on this day, hitting almost 800 feet of home runs in one afternoon.

Overall Bellinger-Bomb Prominence Score(s)

These were both beauties – but when your team hits seven solo shots in one day – you get docked a little bit by no fault of your own. Bellinger didn’t eclipse a milestone mark even while tying two beloved Dodgers players in one afternoon on the franchise all-time list. Neither pitcher was one of league-wide prominence. Both home runs served their role in helping Los Angeles earn a sweep in New York, but Bellinger will hit bigger and better home runs in the near term.

We definitely loved these both equally.

Dodgers’ Nation Prominence HR Score (Home Run One): 8.0

Dodgers’ Nation Prominence HR Score (Home Run Two): 8.0

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

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