Dodgers Crawl Out of NLCS Grave on Cody Bellinger Miracle Home Run

[Box Score]

The Los Angeles Dodgers were all but dead, and trailing 5-2 at Chavez Ravine when once again Will Smith hit a little bleeder single down the right field line. Justin Turner then didn’t deliver, leaving A.J. Pollock to single up the middle off Luke Jackson.

Of course, that set the stage for Cody Bellinger. Suddenly, Bellinger looks like the guy who won an MVP. This was one of the biggest swings of his career and arguably hitting the biggest home run of his career. Forever this will be the home run that bails out the 2021 Dodgers.

Bellinger caught a high Luke Jackson fastball somehow and drove it halfway up the stands in right center. A few batters later Mookie Betts would drive in the go-ahead run. In the bottom of the ninth, it looked like prime aged Kenley Jansen to lock down a 6-5 victory.

Indeed, they will talk about this one forever if the Dodgers come back and win this series. For the Braves, they built a lead after Corey Seager again put the Dodgers up 2-0 in the bottom of the first with a home run but couldn’t put the final nail in the Dodgers coffin.

Certainly it’s reminiscent of 2020, when the Braves had the Dodgers dead to rights on a neutral field in the NLCS. Quite a rivalry is developing between these two teams.

The Dodgers are simply a tough team to kill. They didn’t get a good outing from Walker Buehler. Everything seemed to go wrong, including a misplayed fly ball from Gavin Lux in center that helped Atlanta start their scoring.

Yet still, the Dodgers stole one on the heels of a rejuvenated Bellinger who is seeing the ball as well as anyone in the postseason. That was a helluva baseball game, and it shows you how unpredictable baseball can be. The Dodgers are not dead yet, and this might be the game that we end up calling ‘The Graveyard Game’.

Even in the darkest of times, dreams still come true at times.