Dodgers Team News

Dodgers: Cody Bellinger Motivated to Step Up With the Loss of Mookie Betts

If this week is any indication of things to come for Cody Bellinger, the Dodgers are in a good spot. The former NL MVP slugged 2 more homeruns on Wednesday night bringing his total to 4 long balls over the last 4 games. 

His sudden outburst with the bat is also coming at the perfect time for the Dodgers. Bellinger’s bat has come alive right when Los Angeles lost Mookie Betts to the injured list and Justin Turner on the mend. 



After the 2-homerun performance in Philidelphia on Wednesday, Bellinger was asked if there is extra motivation to step up with big names out. Bellinger admitted that there is a little more urgency for the Dodgers with guys like Betts out of the daily lineup. 

Yeah, most definitely man. With that, we feel the faith in a lot of guys. Everyone is coming together and playing the right baseball, but losing a guy like that always hurts. You just try to continue to work on your plan, your approach, and help the team win in multiple ways. We’ve got a lot of guys that can do that. 

Dave Roberts also noted that Bellinger coming out of it with Betts out is huge timing. The lineup is obviously chalked full of stars, and the recently acquired Trea Turner at the top of the lineup is almost unfair. But getting Belli’s bat going will be huge for an October run. 

Dodgers Related: Gavin Lux Getting Reps at Third Base

He’s getting to the high fastball and not missing on pitches right over the heart of the plate. Bellinger also worked a 13-pitch at-bat before launching a ball over the wall in left field off of Kyle Gibson. If this is a sign of things to come, the NL West better watch out. 

Dodgers: The One Big Difference Dave Roberts is Seeing in AJ Pollock This Year

11 Comments

  1. You mean the millionaire 20 something year old wasn’t ‘motivated’, until Mookie was hurt???

    If thats the case, LA should get a refund on is salary.

    For the record, I DONT think this is the case. The media just says stupid stuff and this is another example.

    Like the stock market. Stock goes up today and there are 20 theories as to why… (All to show ads of course).

  2. John Madden used to get furious when a player would say say something like that. His point was every player should be giving 100% every play. I get Bellinger’s point but for a guy hitting around .180 it’s bad optics.

    1. Tim, Bellinger is still a long ways from being where he needs to be and when JT returns it will allow CT3 to go back in the OF. Bellinger is currently showing that he’s over matched against LHP and may yet still not start against them that much.

  3. I guess the Dodgers offense decided to take the day off today, since they played so hard the last couple of days.

    1. Yep, Dodgers won’t win too many games with just 1 run and 3 singles. Giants are hosting the Rockies tonight so it looks like Dodgers will be 5 games out by the end of today.

  4. Tough loss today. Dodgers now 13-21 in 1 run games. Will Smith getting HBP to load the bases in the 9th turned out to be the best thing that could have happened for the Phils because it brought to the plate, McKinney, an automatic out. Dodgers did a great job in the first 2 games of this series and the pitching was nails all series long. But the Giants looking to go up by 5 tonight.
    Obviously, one big thing that differentiates the Dodgers and Giants this season, is that the Giants’ “lesser” players have been outstanding, especially in clutch, game-on-the-line situations and the Dodgers’ “lesser” players (some of whom are gone now), Peters, Raley, Reks, Nuese, McKinney, Souza etc.,etc., haven’t contributed a thing. Like today with McKinney, we’ve had players of this caliber at the plate with the game on the line too many times and it’s been a miserable failure. As the saying goes: “The game will find you.”

    1. Part of those lesser players is a result of Dodgers having about the lowest draft picks each year as a result of their previous years of finishing first in their Division. Those Dodger players ya mentioned may not ever make it to MLB.

  5. I feel bad for Trea Turner. You woud think that with his speed, we would have scored a lot more runs.

  6. Dodgers were lucky in the 1st game rain delay because it took Nola out. Or we would be talking about 6 games back after tonight. Bellinger still doesn’t hit any fastballs over 93-94n miles and hour. He’s been hitting the slower stuff pretty well. But he , like Jansen can not be trusted in big moments this year. Hopefully Duffy will be as good as his stats come Sep…The Bull pen is looking better lately so we’ll see how long they last, but this team at this moment is Not Better than the Giants, Brewers and a few more. Still need that 4th starter to avoid burning up the bull pen like we are watching them do. We Have to sweep the Mets, and the Pirates….If not Dodgers can forget about the division. Today’s Egg offensively against avg pitching shows what will happen come October. The Dodgers lead the MLB in runners left on base, Bellinger and Mckinney alone strand more baserunners than I’ve ever seen…

    1. Spot on Kirk! And as I post here Giants lead the Rockies 7 to 0 in the 7th inning. We have been getting good pitching but Dodgers are losing games like today’s a bit too often.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button