🔗 Share this article

Less than a day after enduring one of the most exhausting defeats in World Series annals, the Blue Jays played with total command.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr smashed a two-run homer and Shane Bieber delivered a steady outing as the Blue Jays beat the Dodgers 6-2 in Game 4 on Tuesday night at their home ballpark, tying the Fall Classic at two games each and ensuring the matchup will head back to Toronto.

Toronto had passed the morning of the next day dealing with their marathon third game defeat – tied for the lengthiest Fall Classic contest ever – a defeat that denied them the opportunity to take the lead in the matchup and depleted both relief corps. Skipper John Schneider stated later that “the Dodgers won a game, not the World Series”. Twenty-three hours later, his team provided convincing proof.

Early Action

The Dodgers again scored first. Max Muncy walked in the second, moved up on a base hit and crossed the plate on Kiké Hernández's fly out. But the early breakthrough did not rattle a Toronto club that topped Major League Baseball with 49 come-from-behind wins this season.

They responded right away in the third inning. Lukes hit a one away single to center field and Vladimir Guerrero Jr stepped in looking for a breaking ball. Ohtani left a sweeper up and he sent it screaming over the left-center wall. It was his initial extra-base hit of the World Series and his 7th home run this postseason – a fresh club record – regaining the Blue Jays's lead after 13 scoreless frames and shifting the momentum of the game.

Ohtani's Night

That hit also halted Ohtani's record-setting streak of 11 straight plate appearances getting on base. The two-way phenomenon had hit two homers and reached safely a record nine times in the Dodgers' third game walk-off. But on that night, he took the mound on limited rest – his shortest ever – after needing an IV to recuperate from the previous extra-inning game.

Ohtani fastball velocity sat under his seasonal norm and he labored more as the game progressed. Nonetheless, he displayed glimpses of his usual control, retiring 11 of 12 after Guerrero Jr's blast and striking out six. He even walked in the first to extend his World Series record. But the Toronto made him work: six base hits and four runs were credited to him in six-plus innings.

Late Game Rally

The larger problem for the Dodgers was what came next when he finally ran out of energy.

Daulton Varsho started the seventh inning with a clean single to right, and Ernie Clement drilled a two-base hit off the wall to put two on with no outs. Roberts had no option but to remove the starter, who exited to a roaring applause from the home crowd. The Dodgers' bullpen could not finish the inning.

Anthony Banda inherited the jam and right away fell behind. Andrés Giménez fought to a full count before scoring Varsho with a single to left. France came up next with a groundout to make it 4-1, and that was sufficient to remove the pitcher out of the game. Treinen entered next but also was unable to stop the momentum: Bo Bichette and Barger punched RBI singles through the infield, capping a four-run outburst that pushed the lead to 6-1.

Toronto's Resilience

The Toronto's capacity to withstand early setbacks and respond has characterized their whole postseason. They once again did it without George Springer, the injured leadoff man who left the third game after tweaking his oblique.

Bieber, in contrast, was exactly what the Blue Jays required. Traded for mid-season while finishing recovery from Tommy John surgery, the ex- award-winning winner left several baserunners and silenced the Los Angeles' dangerous lineup. He allowed one earned run on four hits and three walks before the manager called on rookie left-hander Fluharty to face the heart of the lineup in the sixth inning. Fluharty required just four pitches to get out Max Muncy and Edman, protecting a fragile lead that soon grew safe.

Former starting pitcher Bassitt then pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth innings as the Dodgers' bats continued to struggle. The Dodgers have produced only 3 scores over their last 20 innings, an abrupt downturn for a team that was among baseball's top offenses all season.

Closing Innings

The Los Angeles scraped a score in the ninth when Tommy Edman grounded out to score Teoscar Hernández after a walk and Muncy's double put runners on base. But Varland finished the game without permitting a rally to build.

Following a game when Toronto left a World Series-record 19 runners and fell apart after repeated of missed opportunities, the fourth contest was brutally efficient. 6 separate Blue Jays collected hits, five brought home scores and the squad cashed almost every run-scoring chance available in the final stanzas.

Next Up

The win ensures the championship title will be presented at Rogers Centre, where the Blue Jays have not won a title since Carter's famous game-winning homer in '93. They now are aware they are assured a full house in Toronto on Friday night – and perhaps the next day – no matter what happens next in Los Angeles.

The fifth game approaches with the series reset and energy swinging to Toronto. Los Angeles pitcher Blake Snell (3-1, 2.42 ERA) will try to arrest the Blue Jays's surge. The Blue Jays counter with first-year player Yesavage (2-1, 4.26 ERA) in a rematch of Game 1, when the Toronto knocked out the starter quickly in an 11-4 victory.