The Red Sox and the Dodgers played the longest World Series game in history last night, burning though pitchers and position players like crazy — someone refresh Nathan Eovaldi‘s IV, please — and watched it all end on a walkoff homer from Max Muncy.
Now they get to come back this evening and do it all over again. As you can see, however, who, exactly, will be doing it is unclear:
World Series Game 4
Red Sox vs. Dodgers
Ballpark: Dodger Stadium
Time: 8:09 PM Eastern
TV: FOX
Pitchers: Undecided vs. Undecided
Breakdown:
Alex Cora’s presumed Game 4 starter, Eovaldi, threw 97 pitches last night in his third game of work in a row. He’ll be packed in ice today, unavailable. Cora used every other pitcher he had except for Drew Pomeranz last night too. Question: if I told you that the Red Sox would take a 2-0 World Series lead and then might be forced, a couple of days later, to hand the ball to Drew Pomeranz in a pivotal, potentially series-shifting game, what would you think had happened in the interim? Some you should be ashamed of you for saying “plane crash,” but yeah, I get it.
As of now, Boston’s starter is “undecided.” If I had to guess I’d say Cora will ultimately go with Game 1 starter Chris Sale on three days’ rest followed by Eduardo Rodriguez, who pitched last night but not much. I suspect Pomeranz, who hasn’t pitched since the regular-season finale on September 30, will be in a “break glass in case of emergency” situation while everyone crosses their fingers and hopes things end quickly and/or in a blowout.
The Dodgers had named Rich Hill their Game 4 starter, and there’s no obvious reason why he could not go tonight, but early this morning, before everyone went back to their homes and hotels, Dave Roberts changed it to “undecided” as well. It would make sense for Hill to go, but it’s also possible that they too could bring back their Game 1 starter, Clayton Kerhsaw on short rest.
At this point, whichever team manages to not pass out from exhaustion can claim some form of victory tonight.
