HOUSTON — For Cody Bellinger, it's all about the hands.
His swing is an aggressive one, a beautiful left-handed force of nature when he's in rhythm, but it requires constant attention. A couple days before the playoffs started, I asked Bellinger — who hit 39 home runs during the regular season and will be the NL rookie of the year when the award's announced in November — how he tries to stay away from slumps. He didn't hesitate with his answer: Video.
He loves watching video of his swing, even when he sees things that need correcting. Those are just opportunities to refine his craft.
"For me, it’s more about where my hands are," Bellinger told me in a phone interview. "If the hands are in a bad spot, I know I’ve got to switch it up. It’s about knowing your swing, going in the cage every day and knowing you can be consistent."
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There are keys to remember regarding constant work in the cages and studying tape: Accepting that little things can cause big problems, and accepting that little things can happen all the time. That allows Bellinger to not get too frustrated when he struggles a game or two.
"There’s always going to be little things that get in the way, get you out of whack," he said. "To be the player you are, you’ve got to find it early, before you get in too big of a slump."
Bellinger, as you know, struck out four times in Game 3 of the World Series, extending his hitless-to-that-point series. The Dodgers lost that game and fell behind in the World Series, as a mild sense of panic set in among Dodgers fans. In the hyper-intense, hyper-scrutinized postseason, a game like that can feel like the end of the world.
Not for Bellinger, though. Before Game 4, he decided to try something different in batting practice.
"I hit every ball in BP today to the left side of the infield," Bellinger said. "I've never done that before in my life. Usually I try to lift. I needed to make an adjustment, and saw some results today."
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Did he ever. In Game 4, the rookie came through with two of the biggest hits of the most important game of the season (to this point). He doubled to the gap in left-center with one out in the seventh inning and came around to score on a single by Logan Forsythe. That tied the game, 1-1.
"Cody's been working his tail off, trying to get back in his groove, and tonight you saw it," Forsythe said. "He put good swings on the ball, and seeing him go the other way means he's getting back to the way he was this year."
With two on and nobody out in the ninth inning, Bellinger doubled, again, and put his Dodgers ahead, 2-1. Again, this one went to the gap in left-center.
The position of his hands after that at-bat? Bellinger was smashing them together with emphatic claps as he stood on second base after an RBI hit that helped his team avoid the dreaded 3-1 World Series deficit.
"That was awesome. Nobody was really worried about Belly," Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager said. "He was going to be OK. He got some balls up in the zone and he hit them in the gap."
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Bellinger is the second player during this World Series to respond to a four-strikeout game with a huge bounce-back performance. Astros leadoff man George Springer struck out four times in Game 1, then went 3 for 5 in Game 2, with a two-run homer in the 11th inning that proved to be the winning run.
Bellinger finished 2 for 4 with two doubles, two runs scored and one huge RBI.
"When things speed up, he has a way of resetting and not letting it spiral," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
Because Bellinger didn't spiral in Game 4, the Dodgers aren't in a spiral in this series. Instead of potentially being down, 3-1, the series is tied, 2-2. They have to feel pretty good about their chances with ace Clayton Kershaw going in Game 5, and Games 6 and (potentially) 7 both at home in Los Angeles.
"We're a super resilient team," Bellinger said. "Taking one here to make sure we go back to LA is huge."
He didn't need to watch video to know that.
