Final Score: Blue Jays 6 Dodgers 2
Why The Blue Jays Won: Both teams had to be tired coming off the 18-inning marathon on Monday night. Only the Dodgers really showed it. Two of their hottest hitters, Shohei Ohtani and Will Smith, went 0 for 7 with a walk. The team only scored 2 runs on 6 hits, and one of them was a garbage run in the bottom of the 9th. Shane Bieber pitched a nice 5 and 1/3 innings, but he did not have overwhelming stuff or command. He threw 81 pitches, with 33 being balls. He gave up 4 hits and walked 3, giving up 1 run. The Dodgers were 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position. The Dodger bullpen imploded in the 7th. The Blue Jays by far looked like the fresher team. It was a close game through 6 innings. The Blue Jays had a 2-1 lead thanks to a 2-run homer by Vlad Guerrero Jr. in the top of the 3rd. Then came the 7th inning, where a lot of questionable decisions were made.
Key Moments Of The Game: The Dodgers sent Shohei Ohtani out to start the 7th inning. In the previous inning, he had a couple of hard-hit outs. He did strike out the last batter, but his last two fastballs dipped to 96 MPH. Dalton Varsho put the first pitch of the inning, a 97 MPH fastball middle in about belt high, and drilled it into right field for a base hit. Ernie Clement took pitch number 3 of the inning, a 96 MPH fastball that was down and in, and doubled into left center field off the wall. Then the Dodgers decided to go with two of their most ineffective relievers in the postseason, Anthony Banda and Blake Treinen. They paid the price. They finished the inning by giving up 3 hits and a walk, allowing 4 runs to score. If you could have limited the damage to 1 run in that inning, you would have still been in the game, they wound up getting rocked. When the inning was over, Banda’s postseason ERA was 10.38 and Treinen’s was 8.31 even though he was not charged with giving up a run in 1/3 of an inning. This should be their last appearance in the postseason. If it is not, the Dodgers will deserve whatever the results are. The game was broken open 6 to 1, and the Dodgers never really threatened after that. They scored 1 run in the bottom of the 9th, but it was traded for an out. A solid win for the Blue Jays.
Nest Game: Tonight in Los Angeles. With the win, the Blue Jays assured themselves of going back to Toronto for a game 6. After game 2, I wrote that I thought the winner of this series would be the team that would win that close, hard-fought, down-to-the-wire game. What I did not know was that the game would go 18 innings. This 18-inning win seemed to have an adverse effect on the entire Dodger organization. You could argue whether they should have even stayed with the planned battery for game 4. At least consider giving Will Smith a rest after catching 18 innings the night before. Then, with the game on the line, why pitch Banda and Trienen? There were obviously other options. Jack Dreyer was one of them, pitching 2 innings no less. The Dodgers showed their age after the game 3 marathon in more ways than one. No matter what happens tonight, the Blue Jays accomplished their goal of getting back to Toronto. If they win tonight, they have an excellent chance of keeping the Dodgers from winning back-to-back championships.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 