When the Dodgers acquired Manny Machado and Brian Dozier over the last two weeks, the forming of an offensive bully was taking shape. An already above-average lineup was adding two big bats in the middle.
The big question recently had been the power outage of Cody Bellinger, having just one home run in his last 30 games over 121 plate appearances, hitting just .208. That all changed on one mighty swing in the third inning Thursday night.
Already ahead 2-1, the 23-year-old came to the plate with the bases full of teammates.