With a walk-off home run in the 10th inning of Wednesday’s game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks, Cody Bellinger became the all-time franchise leader for most home runs before the All-Star break with 29.
It was Bellinger’s second home run of the game and first of his career to be a walk-off.
The Dodgers record previously was shared by Gil Hodges (1951) and Duke Snider (1955), who both had 28 home runs. Garry Sheffield held the L.A. franchise record with 27 homers hit before the All-Star break in 2000.
The accomplishment is another in what’s been a historic first half for Bellinger. He set multiple Dodgers and MLB before May 1 en route to earning National League Player of the Month honors.
Among them were Bellinger breaking Rafael Furcal’s Dodgers franchise record of 44 total hits during March/April by finishing with 47, plus setting a new MLB record for total bases before May with 97.
That was previously held by Chase Utley, who had 85 bases during March and April games of the 2008 season. Bellinger additionally tied an MLB record by reaching 14 home runs in a season before May 1.
He joined Christian Yelich, Albert Pujols (2006) and Alex Rodriguez (2007) are the only players in MLB history to hit 14 homers prior to the calendar reaching May.
Bellinger cooled some, hitting just six home runs in May and seven in June. He’s at xx and counting for July. The two-time All-Star has spread his home runs out rather evenly, as he has just three multi-homer games.
Furthermore, Bellinger continues to improve on last season’s home run total of 25. The 2018 campaign was considered a bit of a down year after he slugged 39 homers as a rookie the season prior.
He set the Dodgers’ all-time home run record for a rookie, surpassing Mike Piazza’s total of 35 in 1993. Bellinger also broke the NL rookie home run record of 38, which was held by Wally Berger (1930) and Frank Robinson (1960).