Game 4 of the World Series was a lot more of a normal baseball game than Game 3. Frankly, though, the only way it wouldn’t have been is if aliens from another planet had paid a visit to Dodger Stadium.
But there were no extraterrestrials on Tuesday night, and now the World Series is all tied up after Toronto’s 6-2 victory. And it should be noted that the Blue Jays now have outscored the Dodgers, 23-17, in total. It might not feel that way, but the Jays have been the better team so far in aggregate. Which makes Game 5 feel even more pivotal than it already is.
Either the Dodgers can pull themselves to within a single victory of their second straight title … or they have to head all the way to Canada facing the prospect of needing to win back-to-back elimination games, in front of a crowd that is going to be levitating for hours heading into first pitch. Maybe it’s good that Game 4 was a lot more relaxing. Because Game 5 very much will not be. For anyone.
Throughout this postseason, I’ll be previewing the next day’s action, game by game. Here are three storylines for Wednesday’s World Series Game 5.
The Blue Jays sure are putting a lot on Yesavage
It is remarkable how quickly Yesavage has become such a reliable and trustworthy starter, no? He took the ball for Toronto in Game 1, and now he is about to make his fifth start this October. Just seeing him on the mound will lead most Blue Jays fans to breathe a sigh of relief, considering how exhausted their staff has been this series.
That’s pretty wild when you think about it, considering Wednesday will be just Yesavage’s eighth big league game ever. Ever! He’s still only 22 years old, don’t forget, a kid who started the year in Single A (“Playing in front of 250 fans [in Single-A Dunedin] instead of whatever it was tonight is a little bit different,” he said after starting Game 1 of the World Series.) He has thrown a quarter of his innings all season, on all levels, in this postseason.
It also has been lost how many of those postseason innings have been thrown at home: All of them. Seriously, all of them. He has in fact only thrown four innings at a big league stadium that isn’t Rogers Centre the entire year. (He made two starts for the Jays during the regular season on the road, at Kansas City and at Tampa Bay, but the latter was playing in a Minor League ballpark this season.) In that one game at Kauffman Stadium, he allowed four runs.
It is fair to say that Wednesday night will be a far, far more hostile environment than what the rookie has faced to this point. Yesavage has shown he is able to remain composed beyond his years. But he has not, in fact, dealt with a challenge quite like this. To be fair: Few pitchers have.
Now what for Shohei Ohtani?
I’m going to say something that may strike you as a little bit controversial, so get ready: Shohei Ohtani is, in fact, human. It might not seem that way, and it certainly didn’t feel that way the last couple of nights. This is a player who hit two homers and got on base nine times (nine times!) in Game 3 and then threw six-plus innings and 93 pitches, while also batting four times, in Game 4. He has also been running the bases like crazy; he even seemed to cramp up a bit in Game 3.
It’s just an absurd amount of activity for a human being in a compressed period of time, and seriously, he is a human being. Case in point: He cramps up, he gives up four runs in a game from time to time (like in Game 4), he even strikes out (twice in Game 4). He actually did look like he was fatigued late on Tuesday, but there’s no time for fatigue now.
The Dodgers are facing a pivotal Game 5 and need Ohtani to have another big offensive game. Mookie Betts is 5 for his last 34, and it should be noted that the Dodgers have scored only three runs in their last 20 innings. The Dodgers bats have gone quiet, all told. Ohtani is going to have to carry them again. How much more can we ask of him?
Who is going to get the big late outs?
You know those 20 innings we mentioned in the last bit? Fourteen and two-thirds of them were pitched by the Blue Jays bullpen, and the only run the ‘pen gave up in that span was Freddie Freeman’s walk-off homer in Game 3 and Tommy Edman’s RBI groundout in the ninth inning of Game 4. The nice thing about the Jays’ relatively comfy win on Tuesday is that they didn’t have to use many relievers: only Mason Fluharty, Chris Bassitt and (of course) Louis Varland. That means that three of their best arms (Jeff Hoffman, Eric Lauer and Seranthony Domínguez) all got the night off. With a day off Thursday before heading back to Canada, you can expect to see all three of them, and maybe early.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers used three relievers themselves, to less effect. Lefties Anthony Banda and Jack Dreyer both pitched, as did righty Blake Treinen, who might have finally pitched himself out of a high-leverage role. The good news for manager Dave Roberts is that he didn’t use Roki Sasaki in the Game 4 loss, giving his closer a day of rest before potentially trying to close out Game 5. Everyone else (save for maybe Game 4 hero Will Klein) should be available to back up Snell, who is starting on full rest.
The nice thing about Game 4 being decidedly more chill than Game 3 is that this is as close to full strength as either team’s pitching could have possibly expected to be after that Monday craziness. Which means it’ll just come down to who can make the pitches late. As it should.
