5 questions for World Series Game 4 with Dodgers on verge of sweep

On Friday, the Yankees were one out away from taking a 1-0 lead in this World Series and swiping home-field advantage from the Dodgers. Then Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off grand slam we’ll remember for a long, long time.

The Dodgers have not trailed since. Now they’re one win away from their eighth World Series championship. The Yankees? They’re one loss away from a dispiriting World Series sweep. This game can turn on you fast.

Here are the five biggest storylines heading into Tuesday’s potential World Series clincher in the Bronx.

World Series Game 4: Dodgers at Yankees (LAD up 3-0)
8:08 p.m. ET, FOX
SP: TBD (Dodgers) vs. Luis Gil (Yankees)

1) Can the MVP get the crowd back into this?

Take it from someone who attended every single game in the Bronx during the 2009 World Series: Yankee Stadium is usually a lot louder than this. There were occasional moments Monday night when Yankees fans got going a little bit, but after Freeman’s first-inning home run, there was a clear lid on the place they were never able to blast through. That’ll happen when your team doesn’t score a run until the ninth inning and your superstar, your beloved MVP, goes 0-for-3 again. (It is becoming actively painful to watch those slow-motion closeups of Aaron Judge’s face after his at-bats.)

Really, nothing much in this series has gone right for the Yankees since Freeman’s Game 1 heroics, and Yankee Stadium reflected that Monday night. These are still terrific fans who have waited 15 years to see a World Series game again. But you’ve got to give them something to cheer. Maybe Judge will hit a homer to provide some hope and light the place up again. But you know when it’s tough to get the fire lit? When you’re down 3-0 in a series.

• The best comeback attempts from 3-0 holes in playoffs

2) Can the Dodgers navigate another bullpen game?

The last time the Dodgers went with a bullpen game, like they plan to do in Game 4, they clinched the NLCS against the Mets, with Michael Kopech leading a brigade of seven pitchers. It should be noted that the reason the Dodgers won that game was not because their bullpen strategy went so smoothly. They allowed 11 hits, six walks and five earned runs, with five of the seven pitchers giving up one apiece. No, the reason the Dodgers won that game was because they scored 10 runs themselves.

The bullpen game before that? It went worse, in a 7-3 NLCS Game 2 loss, with the Mets scoring five in the second inning off Landon Knack. It really has only gone well once, and it went very well, with the Dodgers staving off elimination in Game 4 of the NLDS against the Padres, with eight different pitchers combining on an 8-0 shutout. That success encouraged the Dodgers, who of course only have three starting pitchers left standing, to keep trying it. They’ll do so here again, more because of a lack of other options. Can manager Dave Roberts push the right buttons to get them through it?

Of course, if the Dodgers score 10 runs again, it’ll be a moot point; they’ll clinch this series just like they did the last one.

3) How tough is it to put Gil in this spot?

You can understand why Yankees manager Aaron Boone might have considered pitching Gerrit Cole in Game 4 on short rest. He was, after all, fantastic in Game 1, throwing six innings and giving up just one run. (He even only threw 88 pitches.) It must have been tempting. But even facing elimination, you can see why he would go with a fully rested Gil. The history of pitchers going on short rest isn’t great, and if the Yankees are going to get this series back to Los Angeles, they’re going to need to win a theoretical Game 5 (started by a fully rested Cole) anyway. (Plus, as Boone noted, it’s a lot to ask of Cole after an injury-plagued season.)

• Dodgers lineup a tough test for walk-prone Gil

But that means the Yankees’ entire season is now resting on Gil’s shoulders on Tuesday night. And no offense to Gil here, but that’s awfully risky. He has only pitched one game this entire postseason, and while he did fine enough, giving up two runs in four innings, he did walk three and all told was pretty fortunate. He also hasn’t pitched in 10 days – after having 19 days off before his previous start – and oh yeah, he’s a rookie (albeit a 26-year-old rookie) who walked the most batters in the Majors this season.

If Gil, with the whole world watching, has a bad night, the Yankees’ season is going to be over. And he’s, of course, facing a team that has been on an absolute heater at the plate and will wait him out if he can’t find the zone. Good luck, kid.

4) Is Shohei really all right out there?

It was exciting to learn that Shohei Ohtani, after subluxating his left shoulder while being thrown out trying to steal at the end of Game 2, was going to be in the starting lineup for Game 3. But now that we’ve watched him come to the plate five times … are we sure Shohei should be playing right now? Ohtani’s swings have been awkward and halting; he hasn’t hit the ball hard even once and he seems to be in rather obvious pain anytime he swings and misses. (Even so, he did reach base twice, on a walk and hit-by-pitch.)

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said that Ohtani, even when he’s not 100%, is better than most players who are, and while that might be true, this looks like a very diminished Ohtani right now. You can understand why he’d play anyway, in a game that could win him his first World Series ring. But if he does, it might be best to temper one’s expectations.

5) Is this the night for the Dodgers?

It was, unquestionably, very cool when the Dodgers won the World Series, as the home team in Arlington, Texas, back in 2020. It was also an incredible achievement, considering how taxing that season was on everybody. But still: You can understand why that title has never quite had the oomph that Dodgers fans, who had waited since 1988 to win a World Series before that, might have wanted.

Well, you want some oomph? How about sweeping the Yankees out of the World Series and clinching it in the Bronx? The Dodgers have endured a tumultuous season, with all sorts of roadblocks and potholes from the very first games played in Seoul, South Korea, to a cavalcade of injuries, to near-elimination in San Diego … now to being one game away from a World Series title. The Dodgers can do this tonight. They’ve come this far. Might as well finish this off right now, no?