For games 1 and 2 of the National League Division Series, the struggle bus found Dodgers slugger Cody Bellinger. After an MVP caliber season, he found himself 0-6 with 4 punch outs and a lot of questions.
To win the World Series, the Dodgers need Cody Bellinger . . . to play exactly the way he has thus far this October. https://t.co/H12TKoTg1E
— Andy McCullough (@ByMcCullough) October 7, 2019
He started game 3 with another 0-for-2 before focusing on a pre-game chat he had with LA hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc.
“Just reminded him to focus on that and not get caught up in if he is actually getting hits or not. Just to lock in on his at-bats and execute,” said Van Scoyoc via the Athletic.
Bellinger expanded more on the process of not getting caught up in results.
“They said, ‘You were 0-for-6 plenty of times this year. Keep trying to treat it like a regular-season game.’”
Where Cody has struggled with hits, he was still able to pick up a pair of walks against game 1 starter Patrick Corbin. Washington’s big off-season free agent acquisition was called upon to relieve in game 3 and Belli took all the information he had gathered to capitalize and pick the Dodgers up from off the ground.
Justin Turner identified Bellinger’s 6th inning leadoff single as the turning point for the team.
It started with Belli. He hasn’t had much success in the first two games — he’s in there grinding, trying to get locked in and he wants to be that MVP guy for us that he’s been all year. That at-bat [against Corbin] kind of unlocked him.
11 batters came up to the plate for the Dodgers in the 6th inning, and Cody accounted for 2 of the 6 hits from the boys in blue. By the end of the inning — a postseason record inning — LA flipped the script from a 1-2 deficit, to a 8-2 advantage by the time all was said and done.
The Dodgers went on to win by a final of 10-4 and while Max Muncy got the scoring started with a solo shot in the 5th inning, it was Cody Bellinger that got the offense firing.