Cody Bellinger slugged his 23rd and 24th home runs of the season on Sunday afternoon, both of which were two-run shots to right field. They were ultimately overshadowed as the Los Angeles Dodgers mounted yet another come-from-behind win to sweep the Colorado Rockies.
The Dodgers benefitted greatly from Rockies reliever Adam Ottavino throwing four wild pitches, which allowed five runs to score. Los Angeles erased their deficit and went on for a comfortable 12-6 victory to extend their winning streak to 10 games.
As for Bellinger, he extended his National League and team led in home runs. He trails only New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge (26) for most home runs in the Majors. Bellinger’s multi-home run game was his sixth of the season.
Thus, he broke Mike Piazza’s Dodgers rookie record for most multi-homer games in a single season. For comparison, Corey Seager finished with four such performances during his stellar 2016 NL Rookie of the Year campaign.
What’s more, by reaching his sixth multi-home run game in his first 57 career games, Bellinger broke Mark McGwire’s MLB record (97 games) for fastest to accomplish the feat.
Earlier this season, the 21-year-old slugger became the fastest player in MLB history to 21 home runs and five multi-homer games.
Bellinger’s 24 home runs are the most by an NL rookie in the first half of a season since 1933, which was the first year the MLB All-Star Game was played. On top of that, Bellinger has the most home runs in the first half of a season by a Dodgers player since Shaw Green hit 26 in 2002.
What was a first for Bellinger was the curtain call he received after hitting a second home run Sunday. “That was awesome,” he said. “I didn’t really hear them until someone pushed me up the stairs. Then it was, ‘Oh, this is happening.’ It’s pretty special.”
With another Dodgers record in his back pocket, Bellinger needs just two more multi-home run games to break the all-time rookie record set by McGwire in 1987.
McGwire holds the rookie record with 49 home runs in a season, while Sammy Sosa (1998) and Hank Greenberg (1938) hold the MLB record with 11 multi-home run games in a single season.
