Yankees At-Bat(s) of the Week: Cody Bellinger (7/11)

Photo by Evan Bernstein/Getty Images

The All-Star break is here, and the Yankees have some much needed days off. They’re coming off a grueling stretch of 32 games in 34 days, and the team has suffered some attrition with multiple pitchers going down with injury. They are not where they had hoped they would be with a two-game deficit behind the Blue Jays in the division, so I felt this might be a good opportunity to enjoy one of the best moments of the first-half and certainly the only candidate for At-Bat of the Week — Cody Bellinger’s

three home run revenge game against the Cubs.

First Home Run (3rd inning)

We first join Bellinger in the third inning, Jasson Domínguez standing on second with one out following an Aaron Judge sac fly after Oswald Peraza and Domínguez opened the frame with a pair of singles. Bellinger has already flown out to medium center field in the first when he just got under a hanging curve from starter Chris Flexen.

Flexen starts Bellinger with a first pitch cutter.

Flexen is a little unlucky here not to get a called strike on a pinpoint cutter on the corner up and in. However, Bellinger isn’t remotely interested in swinging at the pitch and perhaps his statue-like take helps convince the home plate umpire it’s a ball.

Next, Flexen goes with a get-me-over curveball on the outside edge trying to get back into the count.

It’s another well-executed pitch, close enough to the zone that the hitter has to swing. Bellinger is all over this pitch timing-wise despite the slow breaker coming in 19 mph slower than the previous cutter.

Despite seeing Bellinger’s on-time swing on the last pitch, Flexen for some reason decides to double up on the curveball to the same spot and Bellinger punishes him.

It’s clear to me that Bellinger was sitting curveball this whole AB after getting two juicy ones to hit in his first inning AB. He gets just the pitch he’s looking for, this one a bit more over the plate, and he sneaks out a wall-scraper over the short porch to give the Yankees an early cushion.

Here’s the full AB:

Courtesy of Baseball Savant

Second Home Run (5th inning)

We next join Bellinger two innings later with Domínguez on base again with another single, the righty Flexen replaced by lefty reliever Caleb Thielbar. You might think the platoon advantage goes to the pitcher in this situation, but Bellinger is absolutely mashing lefties to the tune of a 187 wRC+ this season.

Thielbar opts for a first-pitch sweeper looking to get Bellinger to chase a pitch away.

This is a well-executed pitch and an even better take, the sweeper starting over the plate away before breaking a foot outside away from Bellinger, who gets himself ready to fire before his pitch recognition takes over and diagnoses the breaker as a ball.

Thielbar doesn’t want to fall any further behind, so he goes with a four-seamer in the zone, hoping that perhaps Bellinger will take it after having seen the previous pitch leave his hand away and only travel farther off the plate.

Instead, he watches Bellinger demolish an absolute no-doubter off the side facing of the second deck for his second two-run blast of the day. This is a really good pitch from Thielbar, dotted on the corner up and away, but sometimes in baseball you make your pitch and still get beat by an even better piece of hitting. The thing I love most about this swing is how early Bellinger gets himself ready to hit. He gets that front foot up and down early and there’s very little movement until impact, allowing Bellinger to deliver his barrel with precision.

Here’s the full AB:

Courtesy of Baseball Savant

Third Home Run (8th inning)

Bellinger’s third and final home run came in the eighth inning. Just like the first two homers, there’s a runner on base with one out, though this time it’s Aaron Judge after drawing a walk. The Cubs have replaced Thielbar with fellow southpaw reliever Jordan Wicks, a guy who throws a bit harder than the two pitchers to go before him.

Just like Thielbar, Wicks tries to get Bellinger to chase a first pitch out of the zone, this one a slider.

Even though Bellinger barely flinched on this pitch, it’s still a pretty decent take. The slider starts about knee high and over the middle of the plate before diving downwards, and you could see a lot of guys swinging over this pitch thinking it was a first-pitch heater.

After watching Bellinger show scant interest in offering at the prior pitch, Wicks feels there’s an opportunity to double up on the slider to steal a called strike.

Instead, he spins a hanger right down Broadway. As greater hitters should do with mistakes, Bellinger doesn’t miss, depositing his second wall-scraper just over the leaping try of Pete Crow-Armstrong for his third two-run tater of the night. You can see by Bellinger’s surprised reaction that he didn’t think he got all of this one, but they all count the same whether they land in the first row or 20 rows deep.

Here’s the full AB:

Courtesy of Baseball Savant

This was one of the most impressive displays of hitting I’ve seen from a Yankee this season. Bellinger hit three different pitches in three different location spanning a velocity differential of 20 mph into the seats. He spat on the pitches out of the zone and found the barrel the instant he saw a pitch he liked. It’s even more crazy that he was a seventh inning Kyle Tucker home run robbery away from becoming the second Yankee in franchise history after Lou Gehrig to hit four homers in a game. The Yankees offense has had its fits and starts in June and July, but Bellinger certainly cannot be blamed. This game extended his hitting streak to 16 games, and he’s been one of the team’s few consistent contributors with the bat, logging a 158 wRC+ since May 4th. If the Yankees are going to reclaim their division lead and achieve their ultimate goals, I feel confident in saying that Bellinger will be at the heart of that.

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