Let’s face it, any time that Dodgers outfielder / first baseman Cody Bellinger isn’t in the starting lineup for any reason other than a preannounced scheduled day off, we immediately think the worst.
Bellinger wasn’t in Tuesday’s starting lineup and it wasn’t preannounced.
Yep, the 25-year-old Scottsdale, AZ native, 2017 NL Rookie of the Year, two-time All-Star, Gold Glove, Silver Slugger defending NL MVP was scratched from Tuesday’s lineup for a tight right lat (latissimus dorsi) muscle he felt while taking some pregame hacks in the indoor batting cage at Dodger Stadium.
“It happened in the cage right before batting practice and he was swinging and felt it on his right lat,” Roberts told reporters following his team’s 6-3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday night. “It wasn’t the oblique; it was more the lat. And [he] just felt it tighten up, didn’t want to push it. He ran today, he threw today, he felt good, and we just wanted to err on the side of caution.”
Swell.
Roberts went on to say that he is unsure if Bellinger, who is currently hitting an un-Bellinger-like .225 with a team second-best 10 home runs (behind Mookie Betts‘ 11) would be in Wednesday’s lineup for Game-2 of the three-game series against the division-rival D-backs.
If there is a silver lining to this otherwise dark cloud it’s that Arizona is currently in last place in the NL West 12.5 games behind the first-place Dodgers. As such, this is probably as good a time as any for Belli to take a few days off.
…if there is such a thing as a good time for Belli to take a few days off.
Play Ball!
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The Dbacks may be in last place 12.5 games back, but I’m more concerned with the Padres at the moment.
As long as AJ Preeler is in charge of baseball operations do not concern yourself with the Padres.
Hopefully, Cody will be back tonight! Just asking, Ron, did you hear Joe Davis, wheN Kenley was warming up? Score was 6-3 and he said it would not be a save unless next guy up got on, pertaining to the tying run being in the on deck circle! I am aware of that rule but it wasn’t needed as the lead was only 3 runs (automatic save situation)! Very surprised at Davis! Maybe he should concentrate more on baseball and less on cooking! Also, in game interviews very annoying, barely do they seem to care about the game during interview! Why do they follow ESPN ideas? Sorry to get off topic!