Prior to Wednesday’s pre-National League Division Series workout at Dodger Stadium, 24-year-old Dodgers All-Star first baseman/outfielder Cody Bellinger met with reporters for a pre-arranged press conference. During that presser, the Scottsdale, AZ native and Dodgers fourth-round draft pick in 2013 out of Hamilton High School in Chandler, AZ was asked about the MVP chants that he has been receiving from Dodger fans over the past several months and what they mean to him.

“It’s pretty cool,” Bellinger answered. “I think I tried to block it out as much as I could throughout the year. The last series in San Francisco, I actually kind of soaked it in. I’m like, I’m just going to do what I can, the atmosphere is strong and keep my name in the conversation.

“Now it’s out of my hands, so I’m not going to worry about that right now and I’ll put all of my focus on these next games that we gotta play,” he added.

That “last series in San Francisco” thing is rather significant when you consider that there isn’t a more verbally hostile environment on the planet for the Dodgers and their fans. Then again, as has happened all season long, there was a very strong presence of Dodger fans at Oracle Park on this, the final game of the regular season. The 2017 National League Rookie of the Year entered that game with a MVP-worthy .303/.404/.628/1.033 slash-line.

In his first at-bat of the day in the top of the first inning with one out and runners at first and second, Bellinger slapped a ground ball deep into the hole at shortstop off of Giants right-hander Dereck Rodriguez to load the bases. With that base hit, Belly upped his slash-line to .305/.406/.629/1.035 and collected his NL-best 351st total base on the season.

Bellinger’s second plate appearance of the game in the top of the second inning was also rather significant. With the Dodgers leading 5-0 at the time in the eventual 9-0 rout, retiring and soon-to-be Hall of Fame Giants manager Bruce Bochy opted to try that lefty vs. lefty match-up thing that is prevalent in today’s game by bringing in left-hander Sam Selman.

It didn’t work.

Bellinger drew a six-pitch walk off of Selman, after which Dodgers manager Dave Roberts removed his All-Star and MVP candidate from the game to a surprisingly loud cheer from Dodgers and Giants fans in attendance.

The significance of that final plate appearance on Sunday is that Bellinger hits lefties almost as well as he hits right-handers – .280 vs. .318 respectively. When asked what adjustments he made this season to hit left-handers better, the Gold Glove-worthy first baseman and outfielder seemed almost surprised by the question.

“I mean, I think that minus last year, I never really had a problem hitting lefties – minor leagues, my rookie year – I never had a problem with it,” Bellinger answered. “So just getting back to what I was comfortable in and continued to be that throughout the year.”

That did work.

Will Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez go with the less-than-successful lefty vs. lefty match-up thing that Bruce Bochy (and many others) tried this season against the National League’s leading MVP candidate?

Stay tuned…

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