NEW YORK — The Los Angeles Dodgers are nine innings away from a fourth and final champagne party – and the eighth World Series championship in franchise history.
They lead the New York Yankees 3-0 heading into Tuesday night’s Game 4, an edge that has proven insurmountable in the 120 years of the Fall Classic. In fact, 21 of 24 teams that have taken a 3-0 lead have closed it out with a sweep, most recently the 2012 San Francisco Giants.
The question is how much pride resides in the Yankees.
They’ve been punchless in the first three games, scoring just seven runs and getting shut out for the first 8 ⅔ innings of Game 3, before an Alex Verdugo two-run homer put some window dressing on a 4-2 loss. In Game 4, they’ll turn to reliable rookie Luis Gil against a bullpen game for the Dodgers.
That approach closed out the Dodgers’ last series, a six-game conquest of the New York Mets in the NL Championship Series. If Dodgers pitching is on point again, they’ll leave behind a champagne-soaked carpet in the Bronx and pack a shiny, flag-adorned trophy for the trip home.
Follow every MLB game: Latest MLB scores, stats, schedules and standings.
– Gabe Lacques
Follow along for live updates from Tuesday’s Game 4:
What time is World Series game tonight?
First pitch is scheduled for 8:08 p.m. ET at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday.
Location: Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York
Date: Tuesday, Oct. 29
Time: 8:08 p.m. ET
World Series TV channel tonight
TV: FOX
Stream: Watch this game on Fubo (Regional restrictions may apply)
Dodgers lineup: World Series Game 4
Shohei Ohtani (L) DH
Mookie Betts (R) RF
Freddie Freeman (L) 1B
Teoscar Hernández (R) LF
Max Muncy (L) 3B
Enrique Hernández (R) CF
Gavin Lux (L) 2B
Will Smith (R) C
Tommy Edman (S) SS
Yankees lineup: World Series Game 4
Gleyber Torres (R) 2B
Juan Soto (L) RF
Aaron Judge (R) CF
Jazz Chisholm Jr. (L) 3B
Giancarlo Stanton (R) DH
Anthony Rizzo (L) 1B
Anthony Volpe (R) SS
Austin Wells (L) C
Alex Verdugo (L) LF
Silence at Yankee Stadium: Judge, sluggers go quiet
NEW YORK – They are playing a baseball game between the lines but staging an assault on the senses between every pitch, every inning, every sustainable break in the action in this World Series.
Be it celebrity pleas for more noise from Ken Jeong in Los Angeles to Flavor Flav in the Bronx, or blaring sirens and pounding organs, Yankee Stadium and its Dodger counterpart crank the volume to 11, ostensibly to engage the masses and fill in the gaps in a game that can provide many of them.
But Monday night, in Game 3 of the World Series, the Yankees’ continued futility inspired another, far different aural sensation.Silence.
After a 15-year wait, World Series baseball returned to Yankee Stadium, and 49,368 fans jammed into the ballpark, eager for an electric moment, the kind that inspired an average price of nearly $2,000 on the resale market.
But the Yankees again proved incapable of providing juice organically, their high-priced lineup reduced to a series of flails and fails – and now this World Series is on the verge of ending almost as quickly as it began.
– Gabe Lacques
Hobbled Freddie Freeman playing World Series superhero for Dodgers
NEW YORK — Freddie Freeman, who needs nearly five hours of treatment each day for his badly sprained ankle, may not have the luxury of using ice when he arrives Tuesday night for Game 4 of the World Series. The Dodgers will need all of that ice to assure they keep those hundreds of bottles of champagne and beer cans cold for the raucous celebration they’re planning.
The Dodgers are on the brink of capturing the World Series title after beating the New York Yankees once again Monday, 4-2, in front of a subdued crowd at Yankee Stadium. A sweep provides them more time to get ready for their first World Series parade since 1988.“We want that parade,’ Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We never got a chance to celebrate with the city of Los Angeles. That’s something of incentive.
“But outside of that, you have an opportunity to be a world champion. So, we’re right there. That’s more than enough incentive and motivation.’
Freeman doesn’t need the motivation. What he’s doing now, night after night, homer after homer on baseball’s biggest stage, is cementing a legacy that may never be forgotten in Dodgers history.
– Bob Nightengale
The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.