(Associated Press Photo)
SAN FRANCISCO — Cody Bellinger was the Los Angeles Dodgers’ best young player in 2017, a slugger who won Rookie of the Year honors, set a franchise record for newbies with 39 homers and drove in 97 runs.
On Sunday, Bellinger became the poster boy for what is wrong with the slumping NL champions.
Manager Dave Roberts benched him for what he called a lack of hustle after Bellinger pulled up while legging out a double in the fifth inning of the Dodgers’ 4-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants.
According to Roberts, Bellinger should have tried to go for third base on a ball that landed on the warning track in an area of AT&T Park known as Triples Alley.
“For me, he’s too talented of a player to do that,” Roberts said. “For Cody not to take third base, I would do no service to the team or him by not acting upon it. We’ve had discussions about it. If guys aren’t doing that, it’s on me.”
Bellinger, the only Dodgers player to have more than one hit in the game, disputed Roberts assessment but wasn’t upset.
“I’m always hustling,” Bellinger said. “It just didn’t make sense to me, but I get it as well. He’s trying to prove a point. I don’t think anyone can tell me how to play. I’ve always played hard.”
Bellinger didn’t stay on second base long. He was doubled off on a line drive caught by diving shortstop Brandon Crawford, and later pulled.
Los Angeles has lost five of six.
Evan Longoria hit a three-run homer in the first inning and Ty Blach made the early lead stand up for the Giants.
Buster Posey doubled and scored twice and Brandon Belt added an RBI double as the Giants took three of four in the series. San Francisco is 6-4 against the Dodgers this season.
“We got off to a bit of a slow start and it’s now starting to come together,” said Longoria after homering for the second time in four days. “From top to bottom, we’re feeling much more confident as a group.”
The Giants stumbled through the first three weeks of the season, but have won five of seven on their current homestand to even their mark at 14-14.
“When you consider some things that have happened it’s OK,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “Considering where we were, too, to battle back to get to .500, that’s always a great sign.”
Blach (2-3) pitched into the seventh inning and allowed two runs. He’s beaten the Dodgers twice this season and has a 1.63 ERA in seven career starts against them.
Sam Dyson and Tony Watson retired three batters each. Hunter Strickland pitched the ninth for his seventh save.
Longoria just missed an extra-base hit down the left field line before driving an off-speed pitch from Kenta Maeda (2-2) into the stands in left-center for his sixth home run.
Posey, who doubled and scored on Longoria’s home run, drew a two-out walk in the third and scored on Belt’s double. Over his last 14 games, Belt is hitting .375 (18 for 48) with 11 RBIs.
ASTROS CAPITALIZE ON ERRORS TO BEAT A’S
Astros manager A.J. Hinch couldn’t find just one word to describe the month that Gerrit Cole just put together.
Cole worked into the seventh inning and struck out 12, George Springer and Jose Altuve each drove in two runs and the Houston Astros beat the Oakland Athletics 8-4 on Sunday.
With his performance Cole submitted a record-setting April, breaking Mike Scott’s 31-year-old franchise mark for strikeouts in the month. Cole struck out 61 batters.
“Whatever word you want to say probably fits,” Hinch said. “Whether it’s elite or dominant or exceptional or spectacular. It sounds historic with the strikeouts he had in our uniform.”
After Cole allowed the tying run on his 99th and final pitch, the Astros took advantage of two errors in the bottom of the seventh – among Oakland’s four on the afternoon – to pull away.
“Defensively, we gave it up,” Oakland’s Jonathan Lucroy said. “We gave them too many bases, too many free bags. You give guys free bags whether from an error or walking people or something like that, you’re going to get hurt, especially against a team like that.”
Cole gave up three runs on six hits and walked none in 6 2/3 innings. The right-hander’s dozen strikeouts were his second-most this season, and he has struck out 10 or more batters in four of his six starts. He had six double-digit strikeout performances in his five previous seasons, all with Pittsburgh. Cole broke Scott’s mark of 49 set in 1987.
“I made a few subtle tweaks coming over here, it’s playing out,” Cole said about his start in Houston. “I think the catchers and the analytics guys deserve a lot of credit for the scouting reports and the preparation. I just try to go out and execute the gameplan.”
Will Harris (1-1) recorded the final out in the seventh.
In the bottom half, Alex Bregman walked, stole second and reached third on a throwing error by Lucroy. Brian McCann followed with a popup to shallow right field that bounced off shortstop Marcus Semien’s glove, allowing Bregman to score the go-ahead run.
“It was an over-the-shoulder catch,” Semien said. “I have made that catch before. It just didn’t happen for me right there.”
