Cody Bellinger laughs off baserunning pants problem

Dodgers slugger Cody Bellinger got caught with his pants down Tuesday night. Literally.

Bellinger’s aggressive and acrobatic slide into third while trying to stretch a three-run double into a triple in the fourth inning of a 16-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays was so jarring that it pushed the belt and waist line of his pants almost to his knees, exposing Bellinger’s black sliding shorts.

After being called out by third-base umpire Greg Gibson, Bellinger rolled to a sitting position, pointed to his pants and looked at Gibson, who extended a hand and pulled Bellinger up off the ground.

Bellinger pulled his pants up, dusted himself off and broke out in laughter as he headed toward the dugout. A wardrobe malfunction could hardly put a damper on a bases-clearing drive to right-center field that gave the Dodgers an 8-2 lead and Bellinger a career-high 100 RBIs on the season.

“That was funny,” Bellinger said after the game. “Good thing I had my sliders on. That was a first.”

Bellinger, a leading National League most valuable player candidate who is tied for the major league lead with 42 homers and has a 1.091 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, was perplexed as to how he could almost lose his pants on a slide.

“The belt didn’t break — my pants just fell,” he said. “I don’t know how. I literally have no idea how it happened. They just fell down.”