– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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NEW YORK — Cody Bellinger’s bid to go deep in the bottom of the seventh was robbed at the wall by an outstanding leaping effort, sending the New York Yankees center fielder jogging back to the dugout in disbelief.
No matter. The three long balls Bellinger did slug in the game more than made up for that brief moment of disappointment.
Bellinger launched three home runs in a game for the first time in his career, while also becoming the 29th Yankee in franchise history to hit three home runs in a regular-season game, as the Yankees demolished the Chicago Cubs 11-0 inside Yankee Stadium on Friday night. In keeping with the threes theme, Aaron Judge made three stellar defensive plays in the outfield, which included robbing Pete Crow-Armstrong of a homer in the fourth inning and, to end the eighth inning, a sliding catch along the right field line and in the corner off the bat of Kyle Tucker.
The latter catch closed the night on a stellar pitching effort from newly-named All-Star Carlos Rodón, who ended the first half of the season throwing eight shutout innings while allowing just four hits and striking out eight.
Bellinger’s troika of dingers came in the third, sixth and eighth innings, with the first one, off Cubs starter/opener Chris Flexen and sent two rows into the bleachers in right-center field, extending his hitting streak to 16 games.
His third homer looked to have come in the seventh inning if not for a Judge-like robbery by Chicago’s right fielder, Tucker, who leaped at the wall and avoided the outstretched arm of a fan to catch his former Cubs teammate’s line drive that would have cleared the wall. But one inning later, the history-making home run came nonetheless.
“I’m so happy for him. What a performance,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “The fact that he’s this close to four homers [if not for] a great play by Tucker. I think Belli’s loved being here, loves playing here in a meaningful place to him going back to his childhood. And … doing it against your old team, too. That’s always a weird feeling sometimes, and you certainly want to perform and he did.”
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