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- The Blue Jays topped the Dodgers 6-2 in Game 4, tying the World Series at 2-2 heading into Game 5 on Wednesday.
- A four-run seventh-inning rally against the Dodgers’ fatigued and faulty bullpen proved to be the difference.
- The Dodgers’ slumping offense, which has just three runs over the last 20 innings, remains a critical concern.
Late-night parties always come with a price.
On Tuesday, the Dodgers were reminded of the next-day cost.
Just 17 hours removed from their 18-inning marathon in Game 3 of the World Series, both the Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays seemed to be playing at a slower, more sluggish pace early on Tuesday evening. Their offenses scuffled. Their starters pitched methodically. Their emotional batteries (and that of a capacity crowd at Dodger Stadium, for that matter) seemed to be in low-power mode.
Eventually, however, the team facing more desperation to save its season rallied and finally conjured life.
And with a 6-2 win in Game 4 at Chavez Ravine, the Blue Jays threw another wrench into this back-and-forth Fall Classic fight.
Thanks to a go-ahead two-run homer from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the third, then a four-run rally in the seventh against the Dodgers’ fatigued and faulty bullpen, Toronto tied this World Series 2-2 and ensured a trip home for Game 6 on Friday night.
“We knew it was going to be a great series,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “This team is talented, they’re resilient ... and they came back fighting.”
In many ways, Monday felt like a potential death blow for the Blue Jays.
They not only lost the 18-inning classic, relinquishing control of the series when Freddie Freeman ended the game just shy of midnight with his second World Series walk-off home run in as many years. But they also came away battered and bruised, losing star slugger George Springer to an apparent side injury while exhausting a bullpen that, unlike the Dodgers’, has been tasked with eating more innings this postseason.
After that loss, however, Blue Jays manager John Schneider was adamant.
“The Dodgers didn’t win the World Series today, they won a game,” he said. “These guys are going to be ready to go tomorrow.”
On Tuesday, the Blue Jays leaned on the things they do best. They knocked the ball around the yard — and sent one momentum-stealing blast sailing out of it. They clawed their way back into this series with yet another comeback (something they led the majors in this year), shifting the pressure from themselves to the Dodgers.
The Dodgers do still have the starting pitching advantage in this series, with Blake Snell set to start Game 5 and Yoshinobu Yamamoto lined up for Game 6.
Plaschke: Dodgers hangover leads to giant headache of a World Series Game 4 loss to Blue Jays
After four games of this World Series, the underdogs from up north are fresh, feisty and very much alive, having pulled into a two-game-apiece tie after a slog of a Game 4.
But now, one stumble from either of them could raise the prospect of a potential Game 7, in which Tyler Glasnow would face a raucous Rogers Centre crowd. And given the way the Dodgers’ offense has been going, even good starting pitching might not promise anything.
“We’re facing the best of the best, so I think it’s not that easy,” Shohei Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton about the club’s inconsistent production. “But at the same time, we could do at least the bare minimum to be able to put up some runs.”
That was the story Tuesday, when Ohtani took on yet another unprecedented two-way task.
On Monday, the soon-to-be four-time MVP was pushed to the limits, reaching base a postseason-record nine times while collecting four extra-base hits and at one point battling cramps.
One short night later, he took the mound for his first career pitching start in the World Series.
On Tuesday, the right-hander appeared to be more meticulous with his overwhelming arsenal. His normally triple-digit fastball topped out at only 99 mph, and sat closer to 96-97 mph. He mixed in more sweepers than usual, too, trying to negate the Blue Jays’ potent lineup with a steady dose of spin.
For the most part, he was effective, striking out six batters and retiring 11 of 12 at one point.
“He gave us a good effort,” Roberts said.
But he was also punished for a few too many mistakes, charged with four earned runs in six-plus innings.
In the third, Ohtani hung a hitter’s count sweeper that Guerrero Jr. — who had collected plenty of hits this series, but none of the extra-base variety — clobbered to left for a go-ahead two-run homer.
“Just a regrettable pitch,” Ohtani said. “A bad spot, that location.”
Then, at the end of his night, Ohtani ran into more trouble in the seventh, exiting the game after a leadoff single and double in the span of three pitches.
“It happens,” catcher Will Smith said. “We weren’t able to minimize that.”
By the time the inning was over, the Blue Jays had pushed four runs across against two Dodgers relievers.
Anthony Banda entered first, giving up an RBI single in a left-on-left matchup against Andrés Giménez, then another run when Ty France — epitomizing the ethos of the Blue Jays’ contact-first lineup — slapped a ground ball to the right side of the infield.
Blake Treinen, in yet the latest disappointing entry to his October slump, made matters worse by yielding RBI singles to Bo Bichette and Addison Barger.
“They do a good job of battling tough pitches,” Treinen said, “and putting pitches that are mistakes in play.”
The Dodgers’ real problem, of course, has been their inconsistent offense, which finished Game 4 with three runs in its last 20 innings.
Ohtani couldn’t jump-start the unit this time, going hitless in three at-bats after a leadoff walk in the first. Mookie Betts remains mired in an extended cold spell, batting just .147 over his last eight games.
Situational hitting is also still an issue, with the Dodgers managing just two runs Tuesday — scoring first on a Kiké Hernández sacrifice fly in the second, but then not again until a short-lived rally in the ninth — despite having runners on base in seven different innings.
Will Klein had a career ERA over 5.00 in the minor leagues. Now, in the kind of serendipitous turn only October can create, Klein has etched his name into World Series lore.
And on the whole this series, their team batting average is just .214, making life relatively easy for Blue Jays starter Shane Bieber on Tuesday in a 5⅓-inning, one-run start in which he mixed a five-pitch arsenal and craftily worked the edges of the zone.
“Not great,” third baseman Max Muncy, who is one of five Dodgers starters batting under .200 this series, said of the state of the offense. “We’re missing on the big opportunities, myself included.”
“We are getting guys on,” Betts said. “We just have to figure out a way to get those big hits.”
On Tuesday, the Dodgers didn’t. And now, they’ve let the Blue Jays climb back into this series — following up an all-time classic Monday, with a reality-check loss that counted all the same.
“It’s a grind,” Smith said. “It’s two really good ballclubs going at it. Had a long game last night. They got us today. So come out tomorrow, and try to go ahead in the series.”
For the first two games of the World Series, the average viewership in Japan was almost as high as in the United States, despite a population one-third that of the U.S.
