Bellinger blasts off – The 3+Whoops Game

Phil Gurnee ♦ April 30, 2017 ♦ 2 Comments

Sons of Steve Garvey put out my favorite tweet for this game. For those who remember the back to back to back to back game.

The 3+Whoops Game

— Sons of Steve Garvey (@sosgsosg) April 30, 2017

Games like Saturday Night are why we love baseball.  Down 5 – 2, the only reason to stick around was to see the young kid get another at-bat. Who knows, maybe he’ll hit another home run. Doubtful but stranger things have happened at the Ravine.

It used to be that a Puig at-bat was the reason to stick around but he’s old news and hadn’t crushed a ball for a while.  Puig changed the dynamic when he took a ball over the fence to cut the lead to 5 – 3.  It was nice to see Puig put a charge into the ball but still down two runs to the Phillie closer only stirred the passion arrow a little.  This all changed when Bellinger crushed his second home run of the game (and second of his career) off the foul pole, a majestic blast that stirred the crowd into a frenzy and moved the passion arrow deep into green territory. What had been 5 – 2 was now 5 – 4 with still no outs.

Justin Turner strode to the plate as a pinch-hitter with a fourteen game hitting streak. Pinch-hitting is normally death to a hitting streak but with a one-run deficit, Dave Roberts had to bring his best hitter into the game. I was hoping for a double, but instead, we got a game-tying April busting bomb deep into the left field pavilion, sending everyone into happy riot mode and the passion arrow was straining at the far right threatening to bust out.  The homer by Turner blew up my narrative about being the first LAD to not hit a home run in April but still have an OPS north of .900.

Oh well, all narratives eventually have to die, and this narrative died heroically.

Neris looked rattled and threw the first pitch into the dirt but recovered to strike out Chris Taylor. Austin Barnes (playing 2nd base) fell behind 1 – 2 but squeezed a single past the shortstop. A lefty replaces Neris to face Toles/Seager/Adrian and gets Toles for the second out. Seager slams a line drive into left field but this brought up Adrian Gonzalez.

Gonzalez has been an empty shell of the egg and butter man that Dodger fans are used to watching.  He has slumped all of April and it didn’t seem likely he could be the Dodger to end this game before extra-innings. With the count 1 – 2 Adrian grounded the ball to the left side, but it had enough spin that it hand cupped the 3rd baseman Franco and it bounced off his glove and better yet spun out of the reach of the SS thus allowing Barnes to scamper home with the running run. It was ruled a hit, it was not a hit, but it was the ground ball the Dodgers needed to reach their first three-game winning streak.

Must C Comeback: Dodgers’ bats come alive in the 9th https://t.co/CGsQ8gibC3 via @mlb

— Phil Gurnee (@meercatjohn) April 30, 2017

Brandon McCarthy started the great pitching streak and ended the pitching streak by getting knocked around for the first time this year. Brandon still managed to get fifteen outs while giving up four runs.

Game notes:

• Dodgers win three in a row for the first time in 2017
• Grant Dayton entered the game in the top of the 9th, got his three outs, and enjoyed a W for his effort.
• Bellinger hit his first major league home run, and Andrew Knapp followed that for the Phillies with his first major league home run.  A great day for both of them.
• Andrew Toles led off with a home run, but is going to be hard pressed to keep Bellinger from taking his job.
• Justin Turner now has a 15 game hitting streak