Before the April 25, 2017 game between the Dodgers and the Giants at AT&T Park in San Francisco, the Dodgers were 9-11 on the season, five games behind the NL West-leading Colorado Rockies and 3.5 games behind the second place Arizona Diamondbacks. With Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw on the mound that night it’s no surprise that the Dodgers won the game by a score of 2-1 to improve their record to 10-11 on the young season.

On Wednesday night, August 16, 2017 – exactly 113 days later – the Dodgers are in first place in the NL West with an insane 85-34 record. They are 51 games games over .500, 18.5 games ahead of the second place Rockies and 19.5 games ahead of the third place Dbacks with a ridiculous .714 winning percentage. They are on pace to not only crush the all-time Dodgers franchise wins record of 105 set in 1953 but also have a very good chance to tie or break the all-time MLB wins record of 116 co-held by the 1906 Chicago Cubs and the 2001 Seattle Mariners.

So what’s the significance of April 25, 2017 and August 16, 2017, you ask?

Chances are there isn’t a Dodger fan on the planet who isn’t aware that Dodgers rookie phenom Cody Bellinger made his major league debut on April 25, 2017 and went 1-for-4 with a single and an intentional walk. But what many Dodger fans may not realize is that August 16, 2017 was the 99th consecutive game in which Bellinger has appeared of the 119 total games that the Dodgers have played thus far this season. Yes, 99th consecutive game. In other words, the Dodgers 2013 fourth-round draft pick out of Hamilton High School in Chandler, Arizona and son of former major leaguer and World Series champion Clay Bellinger has appeared in every game since his April 25 call-up.

Granted, the 6’4″ / 210-pound first baseman / outfielder didn’t start every one of those 99 games in which he appeared, but he did start all but four of them. In those other four he was used as a late-innings pinch-hitter, in which he is 2-for-3 (.666) with a a walk, a double, a single and two runs scored. In the other two at-bats he flied out to (very) deep left-center field and (very) deep right-center field respectively.

On Wednesday night with the Dodgers trailing the Chicago White Sox by a score of 4-2, Bellinger, who did not start, was once again called upon to pinch-hit with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning. Bellinger singled up the middle on an 82-MPH slider from White Sox left-hander and Santa Clarita, California native Aaron Bummer on a 2-2 count. It was yet another Bellinger magic moment that ignited yet another incredible (but not unexpected) Dodgers walk-off win – their MLB-best 10th of the season – on a dramatic double by Yasiel Puig that followed an RBI double by Dodgers second baseman Logan Forsythe that scored Bellinger and a single by catcher Austin Barnes that left runners at the corners for Puig.

Although it was Puig’s dramatic two-run double that gave the Dodgers their MLB-best 10th walk-off win of the season on Tuesday night, it was Cody Bellinger’s one out single up the middle (against a defensive shift) that ignited the Dodgers improbable but almost predictable 5-4 win. (Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

“You look at those at-bats right there, Bellinger left-on-left base hit, then you get Logan with the big double, Barnsy as Barnsy always does, he seems to get that big hit when we need it as well, and you cap it off with Yasiel,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters after the game. “I don’t know how many pitches he had [it was eight] but to get a slider, pull it to the pull-side gap and to walk ’em off, and to see his teammates kind of go rush the field for him as he does it so many times for his teammates, so good to see.”

“It’s been a wild couple months, that’s for sure,” Bellinger said. “I knew going into the ninth inning they had the righty (Greg Infante) and the lefty (Bummer). I figured I’d face the righty. Bummer saw me the night before, that helps. I began getting loose in the sixth inning in case I might be needed later.”

Needed and succeeded.

Bellinger Magic … again.