Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich can't stop mashing homers in their battle for the NL MVP
In the eyes of many, it appears as if we're heading toward a showdown for the 2019 NL MVP race between the Dodgers' Cody Bellinger and Brewers outfielder (and reigning MVP) Christian Yelich -- and right now, they're doing everything they can to back that up.
Bellinger entered play Monday hitting .334/.431/.687 with 31 homers and 74 RBIs, good for a 6.7 WAR.
Yelich entered play Monday hitting .330/.430/.708 with 32 homers and 68 RBIs, good for a 5.1 WAR.
On Sunday, Yelich connected on his 32nd home run of the season. That was good for tops in the National League, and No. 32 is just four shy of his 2018 total, which says something about how good he's been this season:
Yelich hits home run #32 to tie this game up! #ThisIsMyCrew pic.twitter.com/IdLhq3uREQ
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) July 14, 2019
That blast from Yelich pushed him past Bellinger, who'd struck his 31st in the Dodgers' game against the Red Sox on Saturday night on his 24th birthday.
Back-to-back for the ones that didn't get the message. pic.twitter.com/b9bHH3DHGd
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 14, 2019
Guess what Bellinger did on Monday night in the Dodgers' series opener against the Phillies? Right on cue, he blasted a solo shot to tie Yelich and keep the fires of this heated head-to-head blazing.
No. 32 for Belli? Ring that. pic.twitter.com/C6jpUlpJ74
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 16, 2019
Two innings later, Bellinger crushed another home run to pull atop the leaderboards and dethrone Yelich (for the time being, at least) with No. 33. It also put Bellinger 16 homers shy of Shawn Green's Dodgers franchise record of 49 homers in a single season.
To say Bellinger's feeling it right now wouldn't do it justice.
All this to say: Man, this is fun. Two of the game's most gifted all-around players just absolutely mashing for their teams that both have dreams of October glory? If things play out as they could, we may end up ticketed for an NLCS rematch from last season, too. The drama!
Strap in, everybody. If this pair of supremely gifted hitters keeps this up, we could be in for some electric action down the stretch.
Adrian Garro joined MLB.com in 2016. Throughout his travels, both Bartolo Colon and Vin Scully have placed their hands on his shoulders. Not at the same time, though. That'd be amazing.
