Cody Bellinger hit a solo home run off vaunted San Diego Padres closer Brad Hand in the ninth inning on Sunday to give him 36 homers on the season, which broke Mike Piazza’s Dodgers rookie record.
Piazza clubbed two home runs on the final day of the 1993 regular season to finish with 35 homers in 149 games played. Bellinger surpassed the Hall-of-Fame catcher in his 106th game. In June, Bellinger broke Piazza’s franchise rookie record for most multi-homer games in a single season.
The 22-year-old rookie hit a small drought over recent weeks, but he also spent time on the disabled list due to a mild right ankle sprain.
Prior to hitting a solo home run during the day game of a doubleheader with the San Diego Padres, his last roundtripper came Aug. 12, also against the Padres.
With a Dodgers rookie record to his name, Bellinger remains on pace to also lay claim to the National League record for a first-year player.
Wally Berger (1930) and Frank Robinson (1956) are tied for the NL rookie record with 38 home runs, while Albert Pujols (2001) is second all-time with 37. Mark McGwire holds the MLB rookie record with 49 home runs hit during the 1987 season.
Bellinger’s six multi-home run games within his first career 57 games shattered McGwire’s MLB record (97 games) for fastest to accomplish the feat. What’s more, Bellinger also became the fastest player in MLB history to 21 home runs and five multi-homer games.
Bellinger’s 24 home runs hit during the first half of the season were most by an NL rookie since 1933 and the most by a Dodgers player since Shawn Green slugged 26 in 2002.
