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Less than a day after staggering through one of the most exhausting defeats in World Series history, the Toronto Blue Jays played with total command.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr crushed a two-run homer and Bieber delivered a steady outing as the Blue Jays defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2 in Game 4 on Tuesday evening at Dodger Stadium, tying the Fall Classic at two games each and ensuring the series will return to Toronto.

Toronto had spent the morning of the next day dealing with their 18-inning Game 3 loss – equal to the longest World Series game ever – a defeat that denied them the chance to take the lead in the series and burned through both relief corps. Skipper John Schneider insisted later that “the Dodgers won a contest, not the championship”. Twenty-three hours later, his squad provided emphatic proof.

Initial Action

The Dodgers again scored first. Muncy walked in the second, moved up on a base hit and crossed the plate on Kiké Hernández's fly out. But the initial breakthrough did not rattle a Toronto team that led Major League Baseball with 49 comeback victories this year.

They responded right away in the third inning. Lukes lined a one-out base hit to centre and Guerrero stepped in hunting a curveball. Ohtani threw a slider up and he drove it screaming over the outfield fence. It was his first long hit of the series and his 7th home run this postseason – a new team record – regaining the Blue Jays's advantage after 13 scoreless frames and shifting the momentum of the game.

Ohtani's Night

That swing also ended Ohtani's history-making run of 11 consecutive at-bats reaching base. The two-way star had hit two homers and got on base a historic nine times in the Los Angeles' Game 3 comeback win. But on Tuesday, he took the mound on short rest – his shortest ever – after requiring an IV to recover from the prior marathon.

Ohtani fastball velocity was under his regular-season norm and he labored more as the game wore on. Even so, he displayed glimpses of his typical command, retiring 11 of 12 after Guerrero's homer and fanning six. He even walked in the first inning to continue his Fall Classic streak. But the Toronto forced him to labor: six hits and four runs were credited to him in six-plus frames.

Late Game Rally

The bigger issue for the Dodgers was what came next when he eventually ran out of steam.

Varsho started the seventh inning with a clean single to right, and Ernie Clement smashed a two-base hit off the wall to put two on with no outs. Roberts had little choice but to pull the starter, who departed to a roaring applause from the home crowd. The Dodgers' relief corps could not complete the escape.

Anthony Banda came into the jam and right away trailed in the count. Giménez battled to a 3-2 count before driving in Varsho with a base hit to left. Ty France came up next with a fielder's choice to make it 4-1, and that was sufficient to remove Banda out of the game. Treinen entered next but also failed to stop the rally: Bichette and Barger hit run-scoring base hits through the infield, completing a four-score outburst that extended the lead to 6-1.

Blue Jays's Resilience

The Blue Jays's capacity to absorb initial setbacks and respond has defined their entire postseason. They once again succeeded without Springer, the injured top-of-the-order man who exited Game 3 after tweaking his right side.

Bieber, meanwhile, was exactly what the Blue Jays required. Traded for during the summer while completing rehab from Tommy John surgery, the former award-winning winner stranded several runners and silenced the Los Angeles' potent batting order. He gave up one earned run on four hits and three walks before Schneider called on rookie pitcher Mason Fluharty to confront the heart of the lineup in the sixth. He required just 4 pitches to retire Muncy and Edman, preserving a narrow lead that quickly became safe.

Converted starter Bassitt then pitched a clean seventh and eighth as the Los Angeles' bats kept to sputter. The Dodgers have produced only 3 scores over their last 20 frames, an abrupt downturn for a team that was among baseball's top offenses all season.

Final Moments

The Los Angeles scraped a run in the ninth when Edman grounded out to score Hernández after a base on balls and Max Muncy's two-base hit put two on base. But Louis Varland finished the game without permitting a comeback to build.

Following a game when the Blue Jays stranded a Fall Classic-record 19 runners and collapsed after wave upon wave of missed chances, the fourth contest was ruthlessly effective. 6 separate Toronto players collected base hits, 5 drove in scores and the squad cashed nearly every scoring opportunity presented in the final stanzas.

Looking Ahead

The win ensures the World Series title will be awarded at Rogers Centre, where the Blue Jays have not celebrated a championship since Carter's famous walk-off homer in '93. They now are aware they are assured a full house in Toronto on Friday night – and possibly Saturday – no matter what happens next in LA.

The fifth game approaches with the matchup even and energy shifting north. Dodgers pitcher Snell (3-1, 2.42 ERA) will attempt to arrest the Blue Jays's surge. The Blue Jays respond with first-year player Trey Yesavage (2-1, 4.26 ERA) in a repeat of the opener, when the Toronto knocked out Snell quickly in an decisive victory.