Anthony Banda and Blake Treinen couldn’t contain the Blue Jays in the seventh inning of Game 4, so this World Series is even with a return trip to Canada for at least one game now a certainty.
The soft underbelly of the Dodgers, the concern that their fans have had from early July on, exposed itself in the seventh inning Tuesday night.
The 121st World Series will head back cross-continent for at least a Game 6 at the end of the week in Toronto’s Rogers Centre. After winning a classic 18-inning duel in Game 3 on Monday night, one that featured key contributions from a series of Dodgers relievers, old bad habits resurfaced Tuesday night in Game 4 as the Blue Jays evened the series with a 6-2 victory.
This next sentence should not be a surprise to anyone that has followed the Dodgers all season: The bullpen, and on this night specifically Anthony Banda and Blake Treinen, let things get out of hand in a four-run seventh that turned a one-run game into a comfortable 6-1 lead for Toronto.
For what it’s worth, this development allowed those planning to return to Toronto for potential Games 6 and 7 to go ahead and hit “confirm” on their flight and hotel bookings.
But if you’re a Dodger fan, your team just gave back the home-field advantage it earned by winning Game 2. The euphoria from Freddie Freeman’s 18th-inning walk-off home run on Monday was short-lived. And once again, if the Dodgers are to win a World Series they will have to do it on the road. Of their eight titles, they’ve only clinched one at home.
Relief pitching has been the glaring flaw all along for a team that has seemed so capable of defending its championship. Alex Vesia’s absence because of a personal matter has scrambled things somewhat, but that’s not an explanation for why, through much of the second half of the season, the guys who are supposed to be leverage relievers have been either way too inconsistent for anyone’s comfort. (Or, in the case of certain individuals who didn’t make the World Series roster, consistently poor.)
Treinen, for example, was dreadful in the month of September, with five losses en route to a 2-7 regular season.
He seemed to have straightened himself out in the early rounds of the postseason, though Game 2 of the NL Division Series against Philadelphia (two runs allowed without getting an out) wasn’t a good sign, nor were Game 4 of the NLCS against Milwaukee (one run allowed in one-third of an inning), or Monday night against the Blue Jays (three hits and the go-ahead run before getting the final out of the seventh).
