After a marathon Game 3 on Monday night and into Tuesday morning, both the Blue Jays and Dodgers will be hoping their starters can deliver strong performances in Game 4. The Dodgers look more likely to pull it off. Toronto starter Sean Bieber lasted just 3 2/3 innings in Game 4 of the ALCS, his most recent start. In fact, in his past four starts, he’s gone more than five innings just once, posting a 4.96 ERA. Los Angeles starter Shohei Ohtani, well, he’s Shohei Ohtani. He has pitched six innings in each of his past three starts. In his past five games, he has allowed just three runs and a 1.01 ERA. If Ohtani had only lasted six innings on Tuesday night and stopped playing, the outcome of Game 4 could have been much different. Instead, the Blue Jays offense exploded for four insurance runs in the seventh inning and cruised to a convincing 6-2 victory, tying the World Series at 2-2.
After a long stretch of weirdness in Game 3, Game 4 looked a lot more familiar. The starters struggled a bit at first and then settled down. A team demands a little too much from its starters and then pays the price by bringing in the wrong relievers. You know, like a baseball game. The momentum does appear to belong to the Dodgers. They were at home, winning two games in a row, and Ohtani had some of the best performances of his incredible career and lined up on the field. After a swing in Game 3 resulted in an injury that walked and talked like an oblique strain and is currently being called right side discomfort, the Blue Jays lost George Springer, who was both their starter and their best hitter during the regular season. They tested the bullpen more thoroughly on Monday and took the mental toll of losing that 18-inning marathon. Fortunately for the Blue Jays, momentum is mostly a construct.
The Dodgers started scoring in the bottom half of the second quarter. After Max Muncy had one out, Tommy Edman hit a single up the middle. Muncy knew that Daulton Varsho’s surgically repaired right arm was particularly weak, and he rushed to second without hesitation (nearly slipping when he tried to secure the pop-up slide to third). It’s always fun to be the runner on a base you’re entrusted to defend. You’re in your usual position, but from a completely different perspective. It’s a bit like when you were a kid and your parents made you bring your sleeping bag into the living room so you could camp in your house.
Sorry, where were we? The Dodgers had runners on the corners and one out, and Enrique Hernandez did what Enrique Hernandez did in October. He lifted a sacrifice fly to right field to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. Bieber allowed one run, one hit and two walks in his first appearance in the lineup. He didn’t knock anyone out. Three of the Dodgers’ seven at-bats were hit hard.
But Ohtani is about to run into trouble of his own. He struck out just once for the first time in the lineup, and his velocity was down compared to his regular season average (although manager Dave Roberts said in an in-game interview that Ohtani was throttling on purpose). He didn’t allow much hard contact, but that quickly changed. In the top of the third inning, Nathan Lukes tomahawked a high fastball to right field for a single. Ohtani then hung a sweeper high over center on Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who technically isn’t someone you want to hang a sweeper high over center. Guerrero unloads onto cement mixer. The violent swing rattled his helmet above his head and the baseball sailed over the left field wall, giving the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead:
Both pitchers are starting to figure it out. Ohtani allowed just one baserunner from the fourth to sixth inning, striking out four Blue Jays at one point. Bieber allowed just two base runners from the third to fourth inning, but he ran into trouble in the sixth. Freddie Freeman led off with a laser shot down the first base line that Guerrero couldn’t quite lock in on a short jumper. Will Smith followed with a sharp lineout to centre. After a few hard hits, manager John Schneider came to the mound, but Bieber convinced him that as long as he threw 80 pitches, he could stay in the game. Teoscar Hernández immediately made him look like a liar, sending the 81st to mid-off for a line drive single. The Dodgers had runners on first and second with one out and Schneider came back to get the ball.
Left-handed rookie Mason Fluharty, making his third appearance in the series, shut the door on a potential rally, inducing Muncy to fly out and striking out the swinging Edman. That was the end of Bieber’s story, as he ended the night with one earned run in 5 1/3 innings. Despite walking three, giving up eight hard hits, and striking out only three, he only allowed four hits in the victory.
Otani’s night ended shortly after Bieber’s night. Varsho led off the seventh inning with a single to right field, then Ernie Clement ripped a double off the wall in left-center. Vartheu hesitated briefly as he rounded second base to make sure the ball wouldn’t be caught, eventually reaching third base. Roberts called on Anthony Banda to help the Dodgers out of trouble. Although he had struck out 11 of the last 12 batters before the seventh inning, Ohtani’s night was over (at least as a pitcher).
With runners on second and third and no outs, the Dodgers brought the infield in. The Blue Jays only had to get the ball to the outfield to score. Andres Jimenez did just that, extending his slider and throwing a single to left. The Blue Jays took a 3-1 lead but still had runners at the corners. After Isaiah Keener-Falefa struck out (temporarily entering a double play until the call was overturned on replay), Schneider brought in Ty France to relieve the left-handed Lux. France hit a weak inside-out grounder to second base. That was the end of Ohtani’s game, as he allowed four earned runs in six innings. He struck out six while allowing six hits and one walk-on. The Blue Jays hit two insurance runs to extend their lead to 4-1.
With two right-handed hitters coming up in Guerrero and Beau Bichette and the game threatening to get away from the Dodgers, Roberts intentionally walked Guerrero and pulled Banda. To the dismay of Dodgers fans everywhere, he called out Blake Treinen, who pitched in the postseason with a 9.00 ERA. Bichette met him with a rocket over the left field wall to score Jimenez, and Addison Barger followed with a single to left field to score Guerrero. The haters said he couldn’t do it, and they were right. Blue Jays lead 6-1:
From that point on, Chris Bassett held the Dodgers scoreless in the seventh and eighth. Luis Vallander made things interesting, setting up Edelman on an RBI grounder to cut the lead to 6-2 before retiring the last two Dodgers. Four Blue Jays — Guerrero, Lux, Barger and Clemente — finished the night with two hits, while the Dodgers managed just six hits total. They still have home-field advantage in Game 5. Two-time Cy Young Blake Snell will face rookie Trey Yesavage, who will also have starting pitching advantage. But after four games, the World Series looks evenly matched and is now certain to end in Toronto.
