Column: Giants’ Brandon Belt isn’t counting out the Dodgers in NL West race

Considering how much confidence athletes project, it’s strange how superstitious they can be. Maybe diplomatic is the more appropriate word.

Take the example of Brandon Belt, the All-Star first baseman from the San Francisco Giants.

The Giants have the best record in baseball and a 6½-game lead in the National League West over the Dodgers, who are kind of rebuilding while kind of trying to contend.

The Giants have Johnny Cueto, who will start for the NL in the All-Star game Tuesday. The Dodgers have Scott Kazmir, who is on vacation.

It certainly looks as if the Giants will win the NL West.

Except …

“The Dodgers are very good,” Belt said. “We let our guard down, they can sneak up on us.”

Belt was saying this at a hotel ballroom in which the All-Stars were fulfilling their media obligations.

Dodgers? Very good? Did he really think that or was he being polite?

“Absolutely,” the unlikely Dodgers advocate said. “I think they’re a good team.”

I told Belt I’ve seen the Dodgers and assured him they’re not “very good.”

“They’re a good team,” Belt said. “When you have players like they do and you can add [sidelined All-Star pitcher Clayton] Kershaw to that mix, they can sneak up on you at any time. I think they’ve played well here the past few weeks.”

That’s true, but the Dodgers lights-out bullpen has pitched something like a million innings this month. That’s completely unsustainable.

“Well …” Belt said.

“I’m telling you,” I said. “The division is yours.”

I thought Belt would thank me for bestowing his team the title. He laughed nervously instead.

“We refuse to take that mindset because we’ve seen them play well before,” Belt said.

Belt pointed to last season, when the Giants won three of their first four series against the Dodgers, only to lose five of six games to them in September. The Dodgers claimed their third consecutive division championship.

I remind Belt the Dodgers front office has had plenty of time since then to make the team worse.

Belt laughed again.

“I would like to believe that,” he said. “I think we have a good chance to win this division. But I 100% believe they can come back on us. We have to be careful.”

Before leaving, I congratulated him on the division title his team would win a couple of months. He gave me another nervous laugh.

Ortiz is the man of the hour

This is David Ortiz’s All-Star game.

That was the consensus among the players from Latin America, to whom the 40-year-old Ortiz has served as a role model and mentor.

“I thank God I have a chance to share an All-Star game with ‘Big Papi’ in his last year,” Detroit Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera said in Spanish.

Robinson Cano of the Seattle Mariners said something similar. So did Julio Teheran of the Atlanta Braves.

Ortiz, who has announced he will retire at the end of the season, will be the American League’s designated hitter. He will bat fourth.

When players were made available to reporters Monday, it was Ortiz who drew the largest crowd.

The links between Ortiz and performance-enhancing drugs — the New York Times reported he failed what was supposed to be an anonymous survey test in 2003 — were forgotten on this day. (Ortiz has repeatedly said he never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs.)

Admiration for Ortiz evidently extends to the other side of the world, as he was presented with gifts from a group of Chinese reporters.

Asked why he was so beloved, Ortiz replied, “I’m a lovely person, man.”

Ortiz is batting .332 with 22 home runs and 72 runs batted in, prompting Cabrera to say, “We’ll see if we can change his mind and get him to not retire.”

Ortiz didn’t completely close the door.

Asked if he might reconsider his retirement plans, Ortiz said, “Not right now.”

Not making a connection

The title sponsor of the home run derby, T-Mobile, sent an executive to say a few words at a noon news conference introducing the event’s eight contestants. The executive didn’t take any questions, which prevented me from asking him why my T-Mobile-serviced phone was unable to get any reception in that room.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com