Hangover 4.
Have they made that movie yet? No? Well, they just did, at Dodger Stadium Tuesday night, complete with headaches, nausea and the shaky feeling of impending doom.
Less than a day after an exhausting six-and-a-half hour, 18-inning victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, the Dodgers curled up in the corner with a cold wash cloth while the Jays smothered them with it.
After four games of this World Series, the underdogs from up north are fresh, feisty and very much alive, having pulled into a two-game-apiece tie after a 6-2 victory in a slog of a Game 4.
Certainly, both teams entered the night exhausted after the Dodgers’ 6-5 victory in the longest game in World Series history Monday night.
But while the Blue Jays literally bounced back, the Dodgers went psssssst.
While the Blue Jays received strong starting pitching from Shane Bieber and powerful relief from an exhausted bullpen, the Dodgers received an underwhelming start from weary Shohei Ohtani and yet another bullpen meltdown.
The Blue Jay offense was aggressive. The Dodgers offense could barely hold the bat on their shoulders.
Before the game, Jays Manager John Schneider correctly predicted his team was far from finished, saying, “It’s the World Series. Everyone is feeling good. They like these situations. We have responded well in these situations. In terms of second wind, no, man. It’s just wake up, get ready to do it again.”
It was a powerful proclamation, and the Dodgers had no answer.
Their lack of response was epitomized by the sorriest ninth-inning rally in recent memory, Teoscar Hernández leads off with a walk and Max Muncy doubles and nobody else can get the ball out of the infield until there was two outs — and Alex Call flew out to left to end the game.
While the series is very much up for grabs, Tuesday’s loss makes one thing very sickly certain. If the Dodgers do become baseball’s first back-to-back champions in 25 years, they will have to celebrate that title in Toronto. After Wednesday’s Game 5 here, that’s where the series travels for Game 6 and 7 if necessary.
For the 62nd consecutive season, the Dodgers will not be able to share that championship party in front of their home fans.
But first things first. Starting with recently shaky Blake Snell on Wednesday, and continuing with Yoshisnobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow in Toronto, the Dodgers will have to figure out how to get at least seven innings out of the starters and stay the hell away from the damned awful bullpen.
It was the bullpen that unsurprisingly gave this game away after Ohtani left in the seventh inning trailing only 2-1 but with runners on second and third.
Enter Anthony Banda, who allowed an RBI single to Andres Giménez and an RBI grounder to Ty France. An intentional walk to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. later, Blake Treinen took the mound and allowed an RBI single to Bo Bichette and another RBI single to Addison Barger.
The Dodgers trudged out of that inning trailing 6-1 and the game was essentially over.
And to think, the day started so brightly.
Kiké Hernández leaned into the stands on the second pitch to catch a foul ball. Ohtani was walked in the first inning to mark his 10th consecutive time reaching base. The video board showed Prince Henry and Megan, both wearing Dodger caps, and the crowd booed, and it was all such fun.
The Dodgers even struck first, in the second, when Max Muncy walked, Tommy Edman singled to right and Hernández scored Muncy with a long fly ball to right. It was Hernández’s 32nd Dodger postseason RBI, an amazing feat for someone who is usually invisible during the regular season. He already holds the franchise record with 89 postseason games played.
The lead, however, didn’t last long, the Jays quickly rebounding in the third with a leadoff single by Nathan Lukes followed by a two-run home run by — who else? — Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
The Dodgers seemed to finally unnerve the Jays in the sixth when singles by Freddie Freeman and Hernandez with one out shoved starter Shane Bieber to the dugout. But facing lefty reliever Mason Fluharty, the Dodgers failed spectacularly, with Muncy quickly flying out to center and Tommy Edman striking out.
Meanwhile, for the first six innings, Ohtani was resilient as always. How does one man run the bases nine times in a six-and-half-hour game one night and come out firing from the pitching mound the next night?
After the home run to Guerrero, Ohtani then proceeded to retire 11 of the next 12 hitters before allowing the single to Daulton Varsho and the double to Ernie Clement that led to his exit in the seventh.
Roberts had no choice but to go to his maligned bullpen. But because they had all worked the night before, they were especially toothless.
“Obviously, last night was taxing on both clubs’ pens, but it’s kind of an all-hands-on-deck situation,” Roberts said.
If it wasn’t before Tuesday, it is now.
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