Things were looking daunting for the Toronto Blue Jays. But then Shane Bieber, the ace showed up.
Bieber dominated the Los Angeles Dodgers by allowing just one run and four hits and walking three over 5 1/3 innings, outdueling the great Shohei Ohtani in the Blue Jays’ 6-2 win over the Dodgers in Game 4 of the World Series on Tuesday night.
Mere hours after the Blue Jays fell 6-5 in 18 innings on Monday, in a game that ended after midnight PT, the the Blue Jays evened the best-of-7 series at 2. They assured the series will return to Toronto for Game 6 on Friday night.
Shane Bieber Used His Whole Pitch Arsenal To Keep The Dodgers Off Balance
Bieber threw 81 pitches and 48 strikes while walking three, but he was effectively wild and kept the Dodgers offense off balance. He did not allow an extra-base hit and got ahead by throwing first-pitch strikes to 14 of the 23 batters he faced, using his four-seam fastball and cut fastball specifically to pitch from ahead.
“They’re resilient — talking about the Blue Jays,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “They came back fighting, caught an early lead. Bieber does what he does and used the cutter, spun us, minimized damage, limited traffic, and we really didn’t get a whole lot of good swings.”
Bieber needed his fastballs, since he said he “didn’t have my slider really at all tonight,” which is a part of why he allowed three of the first seven Dodgers hitters to reach. The Dodgers went ahead 1-0 in the second inning on Kiké Hernández’s sacrifice fly.
But he settled in by retiring 11 of his final 16 hitters — saving Toronto’s taxed bullpen that used eight pitchers in Game 3 by pitching into the sixth inning.
“He came in focused. He came in like a veteran pitcher should. I thought he settled into the game really well,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “After the run, the sac fly to Kiké, I thought he kind of got a little bit better with his breaking stuff, and he made pitches.”
He even did the impossible, retiring Ohtani, who had reached base nine times in Game 3 and was 6 for 12 with three home runs in the World Series entering Tuesday.
By giving up one run, he outfoxed Ohtani — who surrendered four runs in six innings, including a two-run home run to Vladimir Guerrero in the top of the third inning — in what will probably his final outing of the 2025 season.
“The circumstances were something, that’s for sure, coming off of last night and wanting to go deep into the ball game,” Bieber said. “I would have — if I looked at my outing objectively, I would have loved to give the team a couple more innings, but ultimately, it’s the World Series and a win’s all that matters, so we’ll deal with tomorrow tomorrow.”
This Is The Shane Bieber The Blue Jays Traded For
When the Blue Jays acquired Shane Bieber, they could not have known what they were getting.
Sure, Bieber was the 2020 American League Cy Young Award winner and is a three-time All-Star, who has finished top-10 in AL Cy Young voting twice aside from his award win as a member with the Cleveland Guardians.
Still, Bieber made just 13th start in a two-year span Tuesday night after Tommy John surgery in April 2024.
“It was fun to watch him navigate that,” Schneider said. “I’m really happy for him for the last year-and-a-half journey he’s been on. To go out there and do that, that was awesome.”
But squaring off against the reigning world champs — and after losing a gut-punch game like they did Monday — the Jays needed a bulldog like Bieber in Game 4, even though it was his first World Series start.
“These are the spots that we acquired him for,” Schneider said. “It’s asking a lot of him, based on what he’s been through with the recovery from the surgery and stuff. But he’s enjoying it and he’s embracing it and he’s been a huge part of us getting here.”
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