Blue Jays 6, Dodgers 2 – World Series Game 4: Bats continue to come up short as Blue Jays even series

Chad Moriyama 10/28/2025 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

Well, coming off an 18-inning marathon classic, the Dodgers and Blue Jays both somehow got off the mat today to play Game 4. Unfortunately, it was the Blue Jays who were up for today’s game, getting and early lead and then adding on as the bats of the Dodgers continued to stay quiet in a 6-2 loss to even the series.

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For the Blue Jays, it was Shane Bieber, who made his return from Tommy John surgery in August. Despite the injury and layoff, he’s been very effective for them this year since returning.

To start, they actually pitched to Shohei Ohtani in the 1st, but Bieber walked him anyway on a full count after a pair of questionable calls. The trend of not taking advantage of that from yesterday continued, as two flyouts and a groundout followed from the heart of the order.

The 2nd was better, as with one down, Max Muncy worked a four-pitch walk and then Tommy Edman followed with a single to corner the runners. Enrique Hernandez then battled through a six-pitch at-bat and completed it with a sac fly to the track in right to make it 1-0.

Andy Pages then put a charge into one himself, but it too fell short on the track in left-center.

The amount of warning track flies the Dodgers are hitting is impressive in a sad way.

— Chad Moriyama (@chadmoriyama.bsky.social) October 28, 2025 at 2:46 PM

The lead didn’t last long.

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Of course, Shohei Ohtani was on the bump for the Dodgers, the same guy who reached base nine times yesterday and had four extra-base hits. No big deal. Quite frankly, I was worried about him coming into this start as he was on his feet all day yesterday and was already cramping during the game.

Thankfully, he started ideally in the 1st when he got Nathan Lukes to foul out on the second pitch on a great play by Enrique…

…and then struck out Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on three pitches.

However, Bo Bichette worked a full-count walk and Addison Barger followed with a full-count infield single against the shift for their first chance, but thankfully Alejandro Kirk popped up to end the threat.

That did take 19 pitches, but things got better in the 2nd when he got an infield pop, a groundout, and a comebacker for a seven-pitch inning.

After Ohtani started the 3rd with an out, he gave up a single to Lukes and then hung a sweeper to the very guy you don’t want to do that too, resulting in a two-run shot for Vlad to make it 2-1 Blue Jays.

He then got the next two batters to end the 3rd, and then came back to strike out the side in the 4th. He came back out and got the first two of the 5th before giving up another single to Lukas, but got Vlad to lineout to center this time.

Ohtani then came back out set down the side in order for the 6th, and looked fine.

However, when Dave Roberts tried to extend him to the 7th there was trouble. Daulton Varsho started with a single off a fastball and Ernie Clement followed with a double off the wall to put a pair on.

That was enough for Dave as he came to get him and Anthony Banda entered, but after he got ahead of Andres Gimenez in an 0-2 count, he battled to get back to 3-2 and then poked the eighth pitch to left for a single to make it 3-1.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa then lined out to third and Muncy seemingly doubled off Gimenez at first, but it was overturned on review. That was important as Ty France hit for Lukes and grounded out weakly to second to score another and make it 4-1.

After an intentional walk, Blake Treinen entered and continued to look terrible. He gave up a missile to the wall from Bichette for a single that scored a run, and then Barger singled to score another run and push the lead to 6-1.

Kirk then lined out to right to thankfully put an end to the 7th.

They can't use Treinen anymore, man. This is terrible.

— Chad Moriyama (@chadmoriyama.bsky.social) October 28, 2025 at 4:19 PM

Three possible options: 1) leave Ohtani in to work out of his own trouble with the pen exhausted 2) use Jack Dreyer instead of Banda 3) use any other available righty instead of Treinen at this point.

1 and 3 are the most reasonable.

Anyway, Dreyer did enter for the 8th, giving up a one-out infield single and hitting a batter, but getting the next two to prevent even further damage. He then gave up a lead-off single to Vlad in the 9th, and a groundout followed to advance him to second. However, Dreyer just issued an intentional walk the rest of the way to post two scoreless.

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Back to the bats … yikes.

In the 3rd, Bieber gave up just a two-out single to Freddie Freeman, and in the 4th he gave up just a two-out walk to Edman. However, despite getting into hitter’s counts, they weren’t able to get anything further.

They resumed the offensive struggles in the 5th with a 1-2-3 frame, but they got a rally in the 6th. Freddie started with a single that Vlad deflected at first, and then Will Smith lined out to center, forcing a sliding play from Varsho. After a visit from John Schneider, he gave up a first-pitch single up the middle to Teoscar Hernandez that put a pair on.

This time, Schneider came with the hook, and Mason Fluharty entered for Muncy. He got him to flyout softly on the first pitch and then struck out Edman on three pitches to escape with the lead intact.

In the 7th, Chris Bassitt entered and got a 1-2-3 inning, including Alex Call hitting for Pages. Mookie Betts led the 8th off with a single, but Bassitt faced the minimum when Freddie struck out and Will grounded into a double play.

For whatever reason, their high-leverage guy Louis Varland entered in the 9th and immediately walked Teoscar on a full count and gave up a double to Muncy. Tommy then got an RBI on a groundout, but a strikeout and lineout ended the game at 6-2.

Yeah … not an optimistic showing for the bats.

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And so, the World Series is knotted at 2-2. A three-game series, basically.

Same two teams, same place, same time (2:00 PM HT/5:00 PM PT/8:00 PM ET), and same network (FOX) as today. It’ll be a rematch of Game 1 with Blake Snell on the mound looking to rebound from his only rough start of the playoffs against Trey Yesavage, who is looking to do similar.

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