Having played just 11 career games and one full week with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Cody Bellinger was named the National League Player of the Week for May 1-7.
Bellinger went 9-for-21 over five games last week, good for a .429/.455/1.000 batting line. He scored eight runs, had one double, one triple, three home runs, 12 RBI and stole the first base of his career.
Bellinger put together a second career multi-home run game last Friday, and followed that by hitting his first grand slam in the next game. Bellinger in some sense was robbed of an opportunity to add to his prolific week, as Sunday’s series finale at Petco park was postponed due to inclement weather.
According to Elias, Bellinger is the second player since 1920 (when RBI became an official stat) with at least five home runs and 14 RBI in his first 11 career games.
“It’s been amazing,” said Clayton Kershaw over the weekend of Bellinger’s performance since making his MLB debut.”
“He’s just an all-around good baseball player. Runs the bases well, putting down bunt hits when they shift him, playing good defense, everything. It’s pretty special.”
Initially joining the Dodgers to play the outfield because of injuries to Franklin Gutierrez and Joc Pederson, Bellinger is now entrenched at his natural position of first base. The opportunity was created when Adrian Gonzalez was put on the disabled list last week for the first time in his career.
Prior to Bellinger, the Dodgers were last recognized in NL Player of the Week honors by Zack Greinke in July 2015. Gonzalez was the organization’s last player to take home the honor, doing so in April 2015.
Bellinger is the ninth Dodgers rookie to be named Player of the Week, and the first since Yasiel Puig made his MLB debut in June 2013.
