It happens during every World Series – during every postseason series, in fact. A defining moment. That one hit or play or even single pitch that turns the momentum around and usually leads to a series win.

It happened on Saturday night during game-4 of the 2017 World Series at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas.

With the Astros having built a two-games-to-one lead over the Dodgers in the 2017 Fall Classic after splitting the first two games at Dodger Stadium and capturing the opener at their home ballpark, Astros manager A.J. Hinch was feeling pretty good about his ball club; and why wouldn’t he? His Astros had not lost a single game at Minute Maid Park this postseason (7-0) after having finished the regular season with an excellent 48-33 (.592) home record.

But for as good as the Astros were and have been this postseason, including the World Series thus far, they did not expect that the Dodgers’ number four starter – 29-year-old left-hander Alex Wood – would actually prove to be even more dominant than Dodgers ace and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw.

He was.

In fact, until Astros center fielder George Springer slugged a solo home run with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, Wood had not allow a single hit to the best hitting team in the American League this season. It was the deepest that a Dodger pitcher had taken a no-hitter in the 114-year history of the World Series. But with one swing of the bat on Wood’s 84th pitch of the evening, Springer had given his team a 1-0 lead in what has been the toughest baseball venue for visiting teams this postseason.

But then something unexpected happened.

After Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner led off the top of the seventh inning with a ground out to third, 22-year-old Dodgers rookie phenom Cody Bellinger, who is all but a lock to capture 2017 National League Rookie of the Year honors, broke out of his absolutely horrible 0-for-11 / seven-strikeout ‘funk’ (as it was being called) with a sharp double into (wait for it…) the left-center field gap. Yes, the young and extremely powerful left-handed-hitting Scottsdale, Arizona native and son of former three-time World Series champion Clay Bellinger had finally collected his first-ever World Series hit with an opposite-field double.

But that wasn’t the defining moment of the 2017 Fall Classic. In fact, neither was Joc Pederson‘s dramatic step-on-their-throats three-run home run in the top half of the ninth inning (although some may argue this).

Lo and behold, prior to Pederson’s monster 410-foot blast and following a leadoff single by Corey Seager and a huge 5-pitch walk of Turner by Astros closer Ken Giles, Bellinger broke the then 1-1 tie with yet another double into the left-center field gap to score Seager from second base and move Turner over to third base. This is – to this point, at least – the potential defining moment of the 2017 World Series, with one game remaining at Minute Maid Park and the series then returning to a much friendlier Dodger Stadium (at least for the Dodgers) for a now guaranteed game-6 on Halloween Night and game-7 on Wednesday night, if needed.

So how is it that the normally dead-pulling Bellinger all of a sudden snapped out of his 0-for-11 funk with not one but two opposite-field doubles in an Andre Ethier ‘Captain Clutch’ sort of way?

Credit 12-year MLB veteran Captain Clutch himself … not with his notorious clutch bat, but with his ever-present sense of humor and veteran leadership.

After Bellinger’s strikeout in the fifth inning of Saturday night’s game, Ethier walked up to the young Dodger rookie and had this to say to him (according to the great Tim Brown from Yahoo Sports):

After the prior at-bat, a strikeout, another strikeout, a teammate – veteran Andre Ethier – approached him with an earnest mug, as though he’d come bearing insight or wisdom or, hell, a tousle of the hair. Anything would do. With failure come good, hard lessons, and through lessons comes the man who could, for example, take over a series. At least put a ball in play. Presumably, Bellinger was all for that. So he looked up and his pal Andre Ethier leaned in and said, as Ethier recalled later, “You might as well not bring a bat up there anymore. You have the same chance.” Then he went and found his regular place on the dugout rail.

At face value, this appears to be an untimely and rather harsh slam to the young Dodgers first baseman by the team’s senior statesman, but in reality it appears to be the swift kick in the pants that the young superstar needed to get back on track. It caused Bellinger to do some soul searching (or at least some batting approach searching) and resort to the batting practice tactics that he had used prior to the game.

“I felt good today. I made some adjustments pre-game and like I said, I hit every ball in BP today to the left side of the infield. I’ve never done that before in my life,” Bellinger told reporters after his two-double night. “Usually I try to lift and like I said, I needed to make an adjustment and I saw some results today.”

Results indeed.

In fact, in his first at-bat on Friday night, Bellinger flied out to (brace yourselves) Astros left fielder Marwin Gonzalez to lead off the second inning. He then had a momentary lapse in the fifth inning when he struck out against Astros right-hander and curveball specialist Charlie Morton but got back on track with his seventh-inning double … after the friendly Ethier jab.

Instead of trying to pull the ball as he normally does, Bellinger used his earlier batting practice work and went to the opposite field, resulting in his first of two doubles on the night.
(Video capture courtesy of Fox Sports)

After reaching second base, Bellinger could be heard saying “It’s a miracle” over the (enhanced) television broadcast of the game. He also immediately signaled to the Dodgers dugout that he wanted to keep the ball, which he undoubtedly later gave to his mother Jennifer, who is well known to cherish such memorable items – and who wouldn’t?

After his first double of the night and first-ever World Series hit, Bellinger signaled the Dodgers dugout that he wanted to keep the ball. (Video capture courtesy of Fox Sports)

But it’s what Bellinger did after hitting his second double of the night during the Dodgers five-run ninth inning that is indelibly in the minds of every Dodger fan on the planet. Even though it wasn’t a home run, young Bellinger did a bat flip that would make Dodgers slugger Yasiel Puig blush. It most certainly wasn’t done to show up Astros closer Ken Giles simply because that’s not who Belly is. It was done in sheer celebration that he was finally … finally out of his funk and had driven in the (then) go-ahead run. It was as epic of a bat flip as you will ever see.

You could feel the sheer relief and elation that Bellinger was feeling after slugging his second double of the night with his Puig-like bat flip. (Photo credit – Jill Weisleder)

Welcome back, Belly!