One of the cool things about the World Series is that it affords plenty of time and opportunities for storylines both large and small to be turned on their heads.As Game 4 of the 2017 World Series just proved, even something as on the nose as an ice-cold offense getting rescued by its coldest hitter can happen.The Los Angeles Dodgers picked up a series-tying 6-2 win over the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park on Saturday. While Joc Pederson knocked 'em down with a three-run homer in the ninth inning, just as encouraging was how Cody Bellinger set 'em up with not one but two clutch hits.The first: aone-out double in the seventh inning that positioned Bellinger to score a game-tying run on Logan Forsythe's two-out single.The second, and certainly bigger of the two: an RBI double in the ninth inning that turned a 1-1 tie into a 2-1 Dodgers lead.With those two knocks, Bellinger erased the goose egg in his World Series hit column. Moreover, the rookie erased concerns that he was just as lost as that goose egg made him look.Bellinger went 0-for-11 with seven strikeouts through the series' first three games, with rock bottom coming in the form of a golden sombrero in Game 3. He found himself at 0-for-13 with eight strikeouts after his first two at-bats in Game 4.One positive was that he nearly ended Game 2 with a fly ball to the Dodger Stadium warning track in the ninth inning. However, that was a rare instance of him so much as making contact. To wit, he took 22 swings in Games 1, 2 and 3 andwhiffed on 12 of them.Even to the average viewer, it was obvious Bellinger was nowhere near as locked in as he'd been in a regular season in which he tallied a .933 OPS and National League rookie record 39 homers. Thus, it's no wonder it was also obvious to his manager."It's just trying to get Cody to slow down a little bit,"Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts said following the club's 5-3 loss in Game 3, according toBill Shaikinof theLos Angeles Times. I think he's been a little too quick."Per Jared Diamond of theWall Street Journal, Bellinger had an idea of how to put this into practice:Lo and behold, it worked. Rather than try to get out in front and tap into his tremendous pull power, the 22-year-old stayed back and went the other way against two pitches on the outer half of the plate."I tried to set my sights different and I saw some results," he said on MLB Network after the game. "Confidence will take you a long way in this game."Regardless of the exact explanation for Bellinger's breakout, the Dodgers will gladly take it because they sorely needed it.With a team batting average of .161through the first three games and zero runs through the first six innings of Game 4, Bellinger was merely one piece of the Dodgers' lineup-wide struggle.The problem looked that much worse in light of Houston's homer-fueled comeback in Game 2 and 12-hit outburst in Game 3. As the Dodgers' offense was cooling down, Major League Baseball'sbest offense was heating up.In true World Series fashion, Game 4 flipped the script.Although both of them cleared the fence, the Astros managed just two hits against Alex Wood (who took a no-hitter into the sixth) and three Dodgers relievers. Meanwhile, the recent October struggles of Houston's bullpen suggest it's no accident that it was the butt of the Dodgers offense's late-inning breakout.Let it be known that said breakout is a truer reflection of Los Angeles' offense than the largely fruitless effort that had come before. It can't match the creds of Houston's offense, but the Dodgers offense ranked second in the NL in adjusted OPS in the regular season. It then made easy work of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago Cubs in the first two rounds of the playoffs.Of course, there's no guarantee that the momentum seized by the Dodgers in Game 4 will have a long shelf life. As they say, momentum is only as good as the next day's starting pitcher.But if that's how it is, the Dodgers ought to be fine with that, too.Their next day's starting pitcher is Clayton Kershaw, who has three Cy Youngs and who was last seen carving up the Astros over seven innings in Game 1. From the looks of things, he's champing at the bit to do the same to them in Game 5:The Astros have what they need to fight back. That encompasses not just their excellent offense but also two former Cy Young winners ready to take the hill in the next two games: Dallas Keuchel in Game 5 and Justin Verlander in Game 6.But if Kershaw does indeed hold up his end of the bargain on Sunday, the least he'll have done is deal a knockout blow to the already staggering notion that he doesn't have the fortitude to dominate in October. In all likelihood, such a performance would also send the Dodgers back home needing just one more win to clinch their first World Series title since 1988.In all, the position the Dodgers are in now is nothing like the position they were in following their loss in Game 3. Their offense couldn't buy a hit and their ace wasn't coming to the rescue. Now their offense appears rejuvenated and their aceis coming to the rescue.Even the World Series might have a hard time turning these storylines on their heads.Data courtesy ofBaseball ReferenceandFanGraphs.
Click here to read full news..
