Cody Bellinger tripled on the first pitch of his final at-bat Saturday night to hit for the cycle in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 7-1 romp of the Miami Marlins. Bellinger’s cycle was the the Dodgers’ first since Orlando Hudson in 2009.
Seven of the franchise’s 10 cycles came in Brooklyn, though Bellinger became the organization’s first rookie to accomplish the feat. At 22 years and two days old, Bellinger became the youngest National League player to hit for the cycle since Cesar Cedeno in 1972, and the seventh-youngest all-time.
The bid for history began innocently enough, as he singled with two outs in the first inning. Bellinger’s two-run home run with two outs in the third inning opened the scoring and sparked a rally.
Logan Forsythe kept the inning alive by working a walk and Joc Pederson singled. Pederson to that point improved to 2-for-2 on the night with a base hit and double.
Yasmani Grandal’s drive to right field hooked just inside the foul pole and his three-run home run extending the Dodgers’ lead to 5-0. Jose Urena walked Puig before striking out Alex Wood to end the third.
That marked the end of the road for Urena in a forgetful outing. He threw 48 pitches in the inning, 82 total, and was removed after allowing five runs on seven hits. Urena incited Yasiel Puig in the second inning as his first pitch sailed well inside.
Puig took a couple steps toward the mound before Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto intervened. Both benches cleared, words were exchanged, but that was the extent of it.
Bellinger’s assault on the record books continued in the fourth inning as he doubled off Drew Steckenrider to score Justin Turner. The 22-year-old rookie had some good fortune on his side, with Giancarlo Stanton taking a poor angle on the ball that rolled to the wall for a triple in the seventh inning.
The four-hit game was Bellinger’s first of his career. Logan Forsythe’s sacrifice fly was the Dodgers’ last bit of scoring on the night. Alex Wood pitched to soft contact in some regard en route to shutting the Marlins down over six innings.
Wood remained undefeated and became the first Dodgers pitcher in modern franchise history (at least since 1913) to open a season 11-0. He allowed just three hits, walked one and collected three strikeouts to contribute to the Dodgers’ eighth consecutive win.
The Marlins’ lone hits were a two-out single in each the first and second innings and Christian Yelich’s leadoff single in the fourth. Stanton drew the walk with two outs in the sixth inning.
Pedro Baez allowed a two-out double followed by consecutive singles, which broke up the Dodgers’ shutout bid. Luis Avilan replaced Baez and struck out Derek Dietrich to strand runners at the corners.
Brock Stewart finished out the game with two scoreless innings. The Dodgers extended their winning streak to eight games and became just the fourth team in the last 50 years to go on a 28-4 stretch.
