“It kinda hurt”
Cody Bellinger’s right shoulder has a tendency to pop in and out of its socket. It happened once in 2018 and then again last season when he dived to try to stop a grounder while playing first base. In both instances, Bellinger didn’t need to go on the injured list and missed only minimal time, though the 2019 incident did spell the end of his time as a first baseman.
It happened again in Sunday night’s Game 7 between the Dodgers and Braves, but not while trying to make a spectacular defensive play. Bellinger dislocated the bothersome shoulder while celebrating a home run.
Bellinger stroked an enormous homer in the bottom of the seventh to break a 3–3 tie and was greeted near the dugout by his jubilant teammates, who delivered ferocious forearm smashes to Bellinger. After Kiké Hernández leapt to bang ulnas and radiuses with Bellinger, though, something was clearly up with Cody’s shoulder. He did a little spin move to avoid Joc Pederson’s leaping celebration and made his way straight to the dugout.
In the top of the next inning, Fox’s cameras showed a closeup of Bellinger making a beeline for the clubhouse with a grimace on his face and then appearing to tell rightfielder Mookie Betts as they took the field for defense that his shoulder had popped out.
After the game, Bellinger confirmed that the shoulder had come dislodged.
“I hit Kiké’s shoulder a little too hard and my shoulder popped out, so I had to go back in the training room,” Bellinger said on MLB Network. “They popped it back in and I was ready to play some defense. It kinda hurt.
“I’m going to maybe use my left arm [in the future]. I’ve never dislocated that one.”
Luckily for the Dodgers, Bellinger was fine and so his teammates can joke about it.
“You can take a positive out of everything and the positive here is that Belli now knows that he can’t mess with people that are way stronger than him,” Hernández told Fox’s Ken Rosenthal.
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Around the sports world
Kirk Cousins leads the NFL in interceptions and says he won’t finish the season as the Vikings’ starter if he keeps it up. … Legendary NHL announcer Mike “Doc” Emrick is retiring. … Red Zone host Andrew Siciliano missed his first-ever show after testing positive for COVID-19. … Tua Tagovailoa shared a nice (virtual) moment with his parents after making his NFL debut. … A golfer in New Zealand chased his ball right into the middle of a horse race.
Derrick Henry is ridiculous
Mookie Betts makes this look easy
He lost 28 yards on this sack! I counted it as a 19-step drop
Ashamed, but responsible
Lamar Jackson is insanely fast
This baserunning… yikes
Predictable
Traffic jam!
He honestly looked surprised to score
We’ve seen Brady do this, but not with the spin move
As bad a whiff as you’ll ever see
Clemson ran circles around Georgia Tech
Tennessee also laid an egg in a major way
Remember the name Shi Smith
Jon Runyan’s NFL career ended so long ago that his term in Congress ended six years ago
Not sports
Two new jets are in the works to bring back supersonic civilian air travel. … A Texas billionaire was charged in the country’s biggest tax evasion case ever. … Coca-Cola is pulling the plug on Tab. … A Massachusetts man was arrested after attempting to climb up the side of the New York Times building. … A 2,000-year-old drawing of a cat was found etched into a Peruvian mountainside.
“Italian-ish bap”
How can you be 74 years old and not know what a Twix is?
Tight squeeze
A good song
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