Cody Bellinger belly slides his way into Dodger history

Phil Gurnee ♦ October 17, 2018 ♦ Leave a comment

Much will be made of the ground ball base hit by Cody Bellinger that scored Manny Machado in the bottom of the 13th inning to even the Dodger series with the Brewers at two games apiece, but what I’ll always remember about this game was the incredible catch by Cody Bellinger in the top of the 13th.

.@Cody_Bellinger came OUT OF NOWHERE to make that 5-star play!

The @Dodgers OF covered 61 feet in just 3.7 seconds to convert the 17% catch probability. https://t.co/8JHVMcTnE6

— #Statcast (@statcast) October 17, 2018

The thing about the catch was content. Lorenzo Cain was the hitter and Lorenzo Cain runs like a Gazelle and with Bellinger diving, there is a good chance that ball turns into a triple if he doesn’t make the catch.. It was a split second calculated gamble by Bellinger, he could have played it safe and used a safer route to keep the ball in front of him and give Cain a single but something in the Bellinger brain said to go balls out and he went for the kill and succeeded. The catch itself is such a thing of beauty, in slow motion, you can see his glove arm parallel with his body but as he starts his dive he unwinds his glove arm in perfect symmetry with the dive and snags the ball and finishes with a flourish, giving us the Bellinger Bellyside.

So fly. #LADetermined pic.twitter.com/YScY0yofop

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) October 17, 2018

Bellinger is the unique baseball player who can play 1st base and CF. He had only played eleven innings in right field. I’m positive that Puig, as good as he is, does not make that play.