Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger Suffers Shoulder Injury Celebrating Home Run in Game 7 of NLCS

Cody Bellinger celebrated a little too hard after he hit the biggest home run of his baseball career. On Sunday night, Bellinger, the reigning NL MVP, hit a home run in the seventh inning of Game 7 in the National League Championship Series to lift the Los Angeles Dodgers over the Atlanta Braves. However, when Bellinger celebrated the home run with one of his teammates, he suffered an injury.

Bellinger told MLB Network that he dislocated his shoulder when he swung his right arm for a forearm bash with Kike Hernandez. “I hit Kike’s shoulder a little too hard and my shoulder popped out,” Bellinger said as reported by USA Today. “They had to pop it back in so I could play defense. It kinda hurt. I’m going to maybe use my left arm (next time). I’ve never dislocated that one.”

When Hernandez heard about Bellinger’s injury, he said: “Now Belli knows not to mess with people who are way stronger than him.” Bellinger helped the Dodgers rally to beat the Braves in the NLCS. The team was down 3-1 heading into the weekend and was able to win the next three games to reach the World Series for the third time in four years. But as happy as the Dodgers are to reach the World Series, they are hungry for a title, as their last World Series win was in 1988.

“We’re resilient,” Bellinger said to MLB.com. “I think when you see every day the lineup we have — we can do this. Why can’t we do this? We’ve won three games [in a row] before, all the time.” The Dodgers finished the regular season with the best record in the National League and only lost one series all year. Bellinger may have been the hero of the NLCS, but the entire team came together to pull off the rally. Cory Seager, a two-time All-Star and NL Rookie of the Year winner in 2016, was named NLCS MVP after hitting five homers in seven games.

“Obviously, it wasn’t just me, though,” Seager said. “That was a complete team effort right there. One through 28 went out there and just absolutely grinded through that series. That was even a really fun Game 7 right there. That was a test every single night. We were up for it, and we’re up for the next step, too.”