Dodgers: Even the Giants Pitcher Thought Cody Bellinger’s Ball Was Gone
It’s going to be the hot topic of the season all year long. Last year, it was foreign substances for pitchers after MLB cracked down. But this year, it’s about how different the baseballs are, and what that has done to the offense. Dodgers players can certainly attest to that this early in the season.
Far too many times this season, Dodgers fans have watched hard-hit balls that would have been long gone the last few years fall at the warning track. Sometimes they don’t even make it that far. But Cody Bellinger’s ball last night was just ridiculous.
At 102.3 mph off of the bat and at a 30-degree launch angle, that ball should’ve been parked deep into center. Instead, it fell harmlessly at the warning track for another out. It was hit so hard that even Giants pitcher John Brebbia thought that the Dodgers just extended their lead. So much so that he turned around to ask the umpire for a ball.
“I thought it was going to kill someone trying to catch it in the 10th row. That’s not something I needed to see. …I thought [the umpire] was clowning around. Like, ‘Please give me another ball. We just lost that one.’ And he said, ‘You’re allowed to look.’ I’m sure he thought it was really funny. And that’s when I turned back around.”
It’s becoming a reoccurring theme around the league, and players have already taken notice. Hitters have complained about the way the ball travels and pitchers have complained about the way the ball feels in their hands. But as baseball tends to do, there doesn’t seem to be any plan to fix things. So Dodgers fans might have to get used to this sort of thing.
As for Cody, that should have been his 5th homerun of the year. But it’s also not the first time that he crushed a ball that fell short of going out. If they were using the balls from last year, there’s a good chance the Dodgers outfielder was north of 8 homers by now. Of course, there’s no real way of knowing other than the eye test.
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Rather than decorking the balls, they should just ban putting the shortstop in right field and be done with it. I don’t think anyone goes to baseball games to see balls caught on the warning track.
Yeah he hit that ball pretty hard. I thought Mookie had one the other day. We’ve had 4 or 5 like that this year.