CLEVELAND — As Cody Bellinger was piling up hits at Grapefruitreug this spring, Aaron Boone joked that he should pace himself for the regular season.
Of course, it’s not that simple, but almost a month after the season, Bellinger is still trying to settle in the plate groove.
“Obviously I want to get better,” Bellinger said in the Yankees series at Progressive Field before finishing Wednesday’s batting .177 with .527 OPS in 22 games.
“I come to the park every day to make sure I’m ready to roll and hope for something really good will happen. So I want to do more, but overall I think I’ve been able to keep sticking to the process and keep swinging on the pitch.”
Bellinger took a 1-1 walk in Wednesday’s 5-1 victory, hitting a left-to-left single and reaching out to thrust into an outer edge 0-2 Changeup.
Aaron Boone is a strong bat-to-ball skill that Aaron Boone considers to be a blessing and curse for Bellinger, who has hit Tick Harder (90.8 mph) than the rest of his career (89.4) (25% of his career compared to 21.2).
“I’m just missing out on some of the pitches he needs to put on hay,” Boone said Wednesday morning. “Perhaps it expands a bit in some situations because he’s a very good bat to a ball. [hitter]I feel like I can get to everything. Perhaps some pitches he’s playing would be better for you to lay off. But he’s just missing out on a fastball that he feels is “yes.” …Just finding that groove, he will. ”
Bellinger, who fouled the ball from the right calf on Wednesday and still supported it after the game, showed he can balance out the balance of knowing when he tries to drive the ball and when the pitcher learns to give him and find a hole.
He said it was something that “feels” more for him, considering the mound and other factors of the matchup.
“I know what type of player I have,” Bellinger said. “It’s there for the sake of the dose, but sometimes it’s not. So you’re just trying to figure out when it’s there. Understand that you have to be someone who keeps driving the ball.”
It was like a seasonal break for Bellinger. Bellinger closed two games in Pittsburgh and missed another game a few days later due to food poisoning.
With the accumulation of back and early seasons in mind, Boone has also given Bellinger two days of vacation since.
Despite a slow start, Bellinger consistently hit third against the right-handed, but Boone didn’t close the door for the idea of dropping him into the lineup as he was trying to find rhythm.
“I understand,” Boone said. “I think everything. Of course I’m trying to find that balance, but I’m hoping he’ll hit somewhere in the middle of the lineup.”
That said, Bellinger has found other ways to highlight his athleticism and contribute to anything other than his bats. He finished Wednesday’s game and ran to the warning track at Center Field to catch a run over the shoulder. This season he flashed the leather with a dramatic catch to finish the victory.
“Wow,” Boone said. “I think he misunderstood that first. It’s a really tough shoulder catch there. Usually he gets there and reaches out and he plays, but it was pretty good.”
