Bellinger’s homer rescues Dodgers in 6-4 win over Twins

The chants were not sustained, but they were loud, and they were joyous.“M-V-P,” the Dodger Stadium crowd chanted. On the day the Los Angeles Dodgers put the last player to win a most-valuable-player award for them on the disabled list, the kid who rescued their summer did it again.On the first day of life without Clayton Kershaw, rookie Cody Bellinger put the Dodgers on his shoulders. With the Dodgers five outs from a defeat, Bellinger hit a three-run home run, his 28th homer, powering the team to a 6-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins.The crowd also chanted for a curtain call. Bellinger obliged.And, really, he might not have even had the best story on this night. The winning pitcher was left-hander Edward Paredes, making his major league debut at 30, in his 12th professional season.Paredes played in the independent Atlantic League for three years, a fact Dodgers fans can use to dazzle rival fans that insist the Dodgers success is all about the money.“It’s been a long road for him,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “And for him to finally make his major league debut at Dodger Stadium with a win, I know he and his family are thrilled. The guys were excited.”One night after blowing a save for the first time this season, Kenley Jansen worked a scoreless ninth inning for his 25th save.It is difficult to imagine that the Dodgers could lose the best pitcher on the planet and still not list starting pitching as their greatest need on the eve of the trade deadline, but it might well be true.Roberts told the Los Angeles Times last week that he had no preference as to whether the Dodgers should trade for a starter or a setup man, but he did have one request, and very explicit at that.“Wipeout lefty,” Roberts said.As if on cue, the Dodgers found out why, on their first day without Kershaw.It was not the only weakness they displayed. The Twins took a 4-3 lead in the seventh inning, when Dodgers infielder-turned-outfielder Chris Taylor misplayed a line drive into a double. That allowed Miguel Sano to score; he had reached base when right-handed reliever Josh Fields hit him with a pitch.The Dodgers also neglected to score over the first four innings against 44-year-old Bartolo Colon, who pondered retirement aloud after his last start and lugged an earned-run average above 8.00 into this one. They did post three runs in the fifth, including consecutive home runs by Yasmani Grandal and Joc Pederson, before the Twins hustled Colon out of the game.“Once the fifth inning came, that’s when I ran out of gas,” Colon said. “I couldn’t have a feel for anything.”The Dodgers had nursed Hyun-Jun Ryu through five innings, and they had taken a 3-2 lead. The Twins had left-handed batters lined up for the sixth inning, so the Dodgers turned to left-hander Grant Dayton.The first left-handed batter, Eddie Rosario, hit a home run, tying the score 3-3. The second left-handed batter doubled.That made the eighth inning one of the most intriguing. The Dodgers summoned Paredes, whom they had called up Monday. It was three up, three down.Kershaw watched the game from the Dodgers dugout. The Dodgers hope he can return from what they called a lower-back strain in four to six weeks.“One day you’re starting a major league game,” Roberts said. “The next day, you’re in shorts and a T-shirt.