Roger Arrieta
Spring training usually is where you notice major leaguers shake off the cobwebs, adjust themselves back to the good ol’ game of baseball and pretty much get reacquainted with the fundamentals of the game. Thursday however was NOT a spring training game, it was the real deal; actually it was “Opening Day” across all of baseball!
Why I bring this up, because for Dodgers fans the final score (which by the way was 8-5 in favor of the Colorado Rockies, yes the Nolan-Arenado-less-Rockies… those Rockies took the season opener!) is not what sticks out the most from the season opener in Denver. It was the terrible base running Justin Turner did at the top of the 3rd inning that caused the Dodgers a run while also causing fan favorite “BelliBombs” a homerun as well.
Jomboy has this excellent breakdown of the play for those of you who still have not been able to see it or if you want to re-watch it and have a little chuckle at J.T.’s dispense (we still have 165 games to go guys, no panic buttons will be pressed today!)
After the game, Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts spoke with the media and of course addressed Justin Turner‘s base running:
The explanation I got was ultimately it went out of the ballpark but Cody (Bellinger) passed Turner so when that happens the batter is automatically out and so Cody was awarded a single, RBI but the batter is out.
Orange County Register Dodgers beat writer Bill Plunkett asked Dave Roberts who was at fault, if anyone on that play:
I don’t think there’s blame to be placed, I think that Cody (Bellinger) was coming out of the box hard, which he should have, and he’s kind of looking at where the ball’s at… Justin was just passed second base I think and then when he saw the ball in (Raimel) Tapia glove he retreated and put his head down tried to get back because of the chance to get doubled up…
Bills follows up asking Roberts if the umpire should have been more aggressive with signaling the play:
From what I understand he did give the out call so I don’t think he was still trying to see it and once he did see the ball go over he gave the homerun call so I think at the point and time Justin had already retreated so again it’s just one of those funky plays that I don’t think is going to happen again this year.
Let’s hope not and honestly I don’t think it’ll happen at all with any team this season but we still have A TON of baseball so you never know! Of course the internet trolls wasted no times in creating memes of the play:
As far as where the baseball is well, the lucky owner of that Cody Bellinger “Homerun Single” ball is a gentleman by the name of Dan Sauvageau who shared this picture of the ball on his twitter page:
Trevor Bauer takes the mound for the “Boys in Blue” on Friday, first pitch is set for 5:40p local time as the Dodgers look to get to even at .500 and even the series vs the Nolan-Arenado-less-Rockies.
In other “none-related-Dodgers-news-but-will-still-bring-a-smile-to-our-face” news, the Cheating Astros “Bash-A-Thon” picked up right where it left off last spring training Thursday in Oakland take a listen:
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