When does a home run lead to the batter being called out? It’s a rare circumstance indeed, but the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger provided one possible way for that to happen Thursday. With teammate Justin Turner on first, Bellinger hit an opposite-field home run that barely cleared the left-field fence; Rockies’ outfielder Ramiel Tapia leapt for it at the wall and got his glove on it, but couldn’t hang on, with the ball falling across the fence for a home run. But Turner, who had taken off when the ball was hit and already rounded second, thought it had been caught at the wall and retreated to first. That meant Bellinger passed him on the bases and was called out for doing so, leading to Bellinger hitting a one-run home run (rather than a two-run shot) where he didn’t personally score.
Cody Bellinger homers for the second out of the inning to score a run. Baseball! pic.twitter.com/VVxTBvrhLy
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) April 1, 2021
And, this led to Bellinger being officially credited with a single, not a home run:
Bellinger is officially credited with a single, not a home run.
— Jorge Castillo (@jorgecastillo) April 1, 2021
The key fault here seems from Turner rather than Bellinger. But in Turner’s defense, Tapia came awfully close to catching that. And it also seems the Dodgers’ base coaches, and Bellinger, and maybe even the dugout, should have been yelling at Turner to keep going. Maybe they weren’t able to tell what happened with the ball either. In any case, this was certainly a strange way to start the 2021 MLB season. We’ll see what weirdness lies ahead.
[Chad Moriyama on Twitter]
