The Toronto Blue Jays evened up their World Series clash with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night with a 6-2 win in Game 4. That Jays win means the best-of-seven series is now tied at 2-2 with three games left.
The Dodgers took the lead in the second inning on a sacrifice fly from Enrique Hernández, but in the very next frame Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. flipped that script with one swing. Shohei Ohtani started for the Dodgers and fared well for much of the night despite what had to be a significant level of fatigue after the 18-inning Game 3 on Monday. His counterpart Shane Bieber, however, was just a bit better, and his strong outing put the Jays in position to salt the game away with a big seventh inning.
Now for some takeaways from Game 4.
Vlad came up big early
Guerrero had been having a productive World Series, as he had a .444 OBP through the first three games, but the power hadn't been there. That changed in the third inning with the Jays down 1-0 and a runner on first:
Finally, the power that Guerrero showed in the first two rounds showed up against the Dodgers, and with that Game 4 homer he now owns the Jays franchise record with seven career postseason home runs. This one turned that 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 Jays lead. That would grow substantially later in the game.
As for Vlad and his postseason to remember, his slash line for the 2025 playoffs after his 2 for 4 night is up to .419/.500/.806. He's now batting .368/.478/.526 through the first four games of this World Series.
The Jays blew it open in the seventh
With a tenuous 2-1 lead going into the top of the seventh, the George Springer-less Toronto lineup got to work. A Daulton Varsho single followed by an Ernie Clement double ended Ohtani's night on the mound, but the work didn't stop there. Against reliever Anthony Banda, the Jays made it 3-1 on an Andrés Giménez single. Two batters later, Ty France drove home a run on a groundout. Guerrero got the Ohtani Game 3 treatment (an intentional walk), and then the struggling Blake Treinen was summoned from the bullpen. Two singles later, it was 6-1 Jays. Even the final out of the frame, an Alejandro Kirk line-out, had an expected batting average of .340.
Coming into the inning, the Jays had a 69.5% chance of winning Game 4. By the time the top of the seventh was over, they had a 96.3% chance of winning.
Ohtani grinded
One night after reaching base nine times during the course of a game that lasted six hours and 39 minutes, Ohtani took the mound as starting pitcher for Game 4. That in itself was an incredible feat, but then Ohtani delivered a solid start and even pitched into the seventh inning. In six innings of work, he allowed four runs -- two of which scored after he left the game -- on six hits with six strikeouts and a walk. That's not vintage Ohtani on the mound, but it was six innings on a night the Dodger bullpen badly needed a load on the light side. Ohtani gave them that. His night on the mound also featured a seven-pitch second inning, and he struck out the side in the fourth.
At the plate, Ohtani in the first inning worked a presumably unintentional walk off Bieber, and as a result he reached base for the 11th straight plate appearance. He went on to go 0 for 3 with a pair of strikeouts.
The series will go back to Toronto for at least one game
The 2-2 tie means it's now in essence a best-of-three series for the belt and the title. By extension, that means we will indeed at least have one game back at Rogers Centre in Toronto, where the series began. Counting the playoffs, the Blue Jays are 59-30 at home this season, tops among American League teams and second only to the Phillies in all of MLB. In other words, the hope for an upset is very much alive.
First, though, comes Game 5 on Wednesday night back at Dodger Stadium. First pitch is set for 8:00 p.m. ET, and the pitching matchup will be a reboot of Game 1: right-hander Trey Yesavage for Toronto against lefty Blake Snell of the Dodgers. The stakes are obviously high, as the team that goes up 3-2 in a best-of-seven playoff series in MLB goes on to win that series almost 70% of the time.
