2025 World Series Game 4 storylines, what to watch

So that was just about as good of a baseball game as youâ€re going to see. It certainly was about as long of a baseball game as youâ€re going to see.

World Series Game 3 took six hours and 39 minutes, lasted 18 innings and required 19 pitchers. It featured two Shohei Ohtani homers, four Ohtani extra-base hits and five Ohtani walks (four of them intentional). There were a whopping 37 runners left on base, a seemingly endless series of players thrown out on the bases, one Clayton Kershaw clutch out that could have doubled as a farewell, yet ANOTHER Freddie Freeman walk-off homer in the World Series, and presumably, a partridge in a pear tree.

The Dodgers won Game 3 of the World Series, but the way that game went … it felt like they won more. But we shall see. We do, after all, have to play again today, after a game that stretched into today on the East Coast and very nearly did on the West Coast, too. Itâ€ll happen whether any of us are ready for it or not.

Throughout this postseason, Iâ€ll be previewing the next dayâ€s action, game by game. Here are three storylines for todayâ€s World Series Game 4.

Shohei is pitching! (And hitting)

What do you do as an encore after playing perhaps the greatest individual baseball game in the history of the sport, one that sent your team to the World Series? Well, if youâ€re Ohtani, you just keep making history. In Game 3, that meant setting postseason records for reaching base safely (nine times) and intentional walks, with the Blue Jays deciding they wanted absolutely no part of facing him in a high-leverage situation. (Also, donâ€t you love when I said “playing perhaps the greatest individual game in the history of the sport,†you were maybe not immediately sure which game I was referring to?)

And now he gets to take the mound! I feel obliged to point out that a starting pitcher also hitting in a World Series game happened for nearly 120 years before the universal DH arrived, so itâ€s not that weird, but everything Ohtani does at this point feels unprecedented anyway. But the spectacle of what Ohtani will do tonight shouldnâ€t overshadow how important it is for him to be great both on the mound and as the leadoff man.

The Dodgers had to use a bunch of bullpen arms on Monday night — every single one they have, in fact — and theyâ€ve got Game 5 looming on Wednesday. That means they need Ohtani not just to be good, they need some innings out of him. He has thrown six innings in each of his last three appearances, including two in the postseason, and they sure could use that again. And also a homer or two: They could use that, too. (If the Blue Jays ever pitch to him again, anyway.) Point is: What Ohtani does is so magical that it doesnâ€t quite feel real sometimes. But thereâ€s nothing more real than the World Series. This is what all that magic is for.

Seriously: Who is left to pitch this game?

As my MLB.com colleague Mike Petriello has pointed out, neither one of these bullpens was in particularly good shape heading into Monday night, and that was before they had to throw a combined 26 innings during an extremely exhausting Game 3. The Dodgers used nine relievers, and the Blue Jays used eight. And now they have to play again today … and again tomorrow.

Weâ€ve already discussed how the Dodgers are unlikely to push Ohtani too deep into Game 4. Meanwhile, Bieber didnâ€t make his MLB debut this year until Aug. 22 and hasnâ€t thrown more than six innings since July 2023. In other words, either these starters are going to get stretched beyond their comfort zones, or weâ€re going to see a lot of innings from two depleted bullpens. Or perhaps both.

This is particularly urgent because the best pitchers out of the bullpen for both teams, Roki Sasaki for the Dodgers and Jeff Hoffman for the Blue Jays, pitched multiple innings. In fact, a combined nine relievers recorded more than three outs in Game 3. We better bring back the bullpen carts over the next couple days, or else somebodyâ€s going to have to carry those guys out there. You like offense? Youâ€re about to see a lot of it.

Will we see George Springer again in this series?

George Springer was an October legend, obviously, before this postseason run with the Blue Jays. Winning a World Series MVP Award will do that for you. (Reaching the playoffs in seven different seasons, and being excellent in just about all of them, will do that, too. As will sending your team to the World Series with a three-run homer in Game 7 of the ALCS.)

He also may have been the Jays†best hitter this season, bouncing back after the worst season of his career. Dodgers fans, still sore about 2017, may be booing him, but itâ€s difficult for the rest of us not to cheer for him. But you have to wonder if weâ€ve seen the last of him for 2025.

He was already dealing with a knee injury, but when he grabbed at his right side after fouling a ball off in the seventh inning — and was immediately pulled — what John Smoltz said on the FOX broadcast at the time sure sounded right: It looked like the sort of injury that will take a longer time to heal than the Jays may have left in this series. After the game, manager John Schneider said Springer has “right side discomfort†and underwent an MRI, with results pending.

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