Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger is sitting out Saturday’s game but will try to continue to play after suffering a non-displaced rib fracture earlier this week, manager Dave Roberts said.
“We just got the imaging this morning,” Roberts told reporters Saturday. “It was that play Monday. He just said it was sore. It was very benign, the collision. So no one thought anything of it.”
Bellinger collided with Gavin Lux in left-center field during Monday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Bellinger stayed in the game, and had played with pain since.
Roberts said they’ll manage Bellinger’s pain tolerance moving forward.
“He said it’s more [bothersome] when he’s throwing,” Roberts said. “It’s on the left side so when he’s throwing in the outfield. Right now, it’s just sore. I’m sure there might be something with swinging too. Just going to give him a day for it to calm down.”
Bellinger has struggled this season with a .159 batting average, nine home runs and 34 RBIs. He missed almost two months this season with a hairline fracture in his left fibula and was out an additional 10 games with a hamstring injury.
“If you look at all the things that have happened, you have to be sensitive to him and the emotions,” Roberts said. “But I just don’t think it’s beneficial to play the ‘Woe is me’ because it’s part of life, it’s baseball and this is what’s going on with him. We still have to focus on what he can do to help us win. And not to be insensitive at all, but I don’t want to put that out there because I don’t want him to feel sorry for himself and I know he doesn’t. He shouldn’t.
“I think there’s some natural, ‘Man, something else?’ But I just don’t think it’s helpful for me to add to that. What are you going to do about it? With where we’re at in the season, that’s the only way to look at it.”