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There were reasons for Cody Bellinger to feel disrespected, even if he publicly shrugged off both.
The Red Sox wanted to pitch to a slugging outfielder who had been signed to a $162.5 million contract this winter. With two outs in the sixth inning and Trent Grisham on second base, Boston intentionally walked Ben Rice to take its chances with Bellinger.
And after Bellinger reached out and got just enough juice behind a Garrett Whitlock changeup for a three-run home run, he slowly trotted around the bases in a fashion that hinted he may have noticed Boston’s Willson Contreras had done the same in the top of the inning.
Regardless of the motivations, Bellinger’s execution was flawless in turning a close game lopsided, his blast the last that mattered in what became a 9-2 smacking of the Red Sox to clinch the wild-card series Wednesday in The Bronx and earn a date with the Rays in the ALDS.
Chad Tracy and the Red Sox had reason to prefer facing Bellinger in what was then a game they trailed, 5-1, simply because Bellinger was not Rice. A night earlier, the Yankees first baseman/DH was unstoppable in going 4-for-5 with a pair of home runs and six RBIs. And in his previous at-bat Wednesday, Rice had stroked a single through the right side.
And so it was Bellinger whom the Red Sox chose, though the veteran said he did not take the decision personally.
“I had a feeling that they might do that,” Bellinger said in a clubhouse filled with puddles of beer. “I think when you hit behind [Aaron] Judge so often, you just get used to it.”
If he were not especially inspired, he instead was just himself: a good hitter who got under the Whitlock changeup, lifting it high enough that there was no doubt it would be a home run or an out at the wall. He did not know if he got enough.
He did, with an assist to Yankee Stadium, the only ballpark in which that ball would leave the yard.
“I enjoyed it. That was a cool moment,” said Bellinger, who enjoyed an unusually slow trot around the bases.
He walked, then slow-jogged to first, saw it land in the stands 360 feet away just beyond the reach of Wilyer Abreu, and then saw no reason to speed up.
Just a few minutes earlier, Contreras had popped a home run for the Red Sox’s first run of the series and ran as if he wanted Boston to savor every moment of the drought-stopper. The trot was officially clocked at 30.09 seconds.
“I didn’t even see [Contreras’ trot],” said Bellinger, sidestepping any notion of pettiness.
Regardless, in a series in which the Yankees beat the Red Sox in every way imaginable, this possible battle of pettiness went to the Yankees too: Bellinger slogged around the bases absorbing the cheers just a bit longer at 31.29 seconds.
