LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers clubhouse felt measured after a 6–2 loss in Game 4. Nobody reached for excuses. The bats were quiet, the later innings got away, and the series is now even. Players spoke about turning the page quickly, even with the familiar frustrations of thin offense and a bullpen stretch showing up again.
Max Muncy kept it simple. “Yeah, it’s another game. It’s a zero score,” he said. “I say it every single night, nothing that happens the night before has any effect on the next day.” Asked about Shohei Ohtani’s workload and whether fatigue crept in, he stayed in his lane. “You’d have to ask him. I don’t know how he’s feeling. Obviously, I can look at him, but I can’t speak for the guy, so you’d have to ask him that.”
When the conversation turned to the path ahead, Muncy narrowed the lens. “We have a one-game series right now,” he said. “We have a game tomorrow and that’s it. That’s all we’re focused on. We’ve got to win tomorrow and then we’ll worry about the rest after that. But as far as I’m concerned, we just have a one-game series.”
Anthony Banda, part of a bullpen that has shouldered a lot since the 18-inning epic, described how the group tried to answer the bell. “Just going off who feels good, who’s pitch count, all that other good stuff,” he said. The Blue Jays’ approach stood out to him. “It’s the contact,” Banda explained. “They’re very good at just putting the bat on the ball and that’s kind of what they did tonight. You execute pitches and stuff like that, they just find a way to get it done.”
Banda was asked about the mental reset between a marathon and a game that tilts in the other direction. He leaned on habit. “It’s just the same thing as the regular season. It’s nothing different,” he said. “Treat it like every other game. Don’t let it get too big. You let it get too big, I think it eats you alive.”
Mookie Betts tipped his cap to Shane Bieber, then turned the page to the bigger picture. “I think he pitched a really good game,” Betts said. “He kept it out of the middle of the plate and he pitched a really good game. You’ve got to tip your cap to a really good pitcher.” As for the stop-start feel of the lineup, Betts did not call it pressure. “I think it’s just part of it,” he said. “Obviously we would love to score 10 every game, but that’s not the case. We would love to get going, but you just have to play. That’s all. All you’ve got to do is just play and see what happens.”
With the series tied again, Betts shrugged at the idea of momentum swinging wildly from night to night. “It’s a series,” he said. “It’s a seven game. That’s why you play seven games. They’re not in the World Series by luck. They’re a really, really good ball club.” Asked how he recalibrates for the next one, Betts went back to routine. “Do the same thing I do every day,” he said. “Just go to sleep, do my homework, and come to the park, hang out with the boys, and get ready to play. You can’t do more or add extra stuff to this. It’s already enough. You can’t add more to yourself.”
The two pressure points were hard to miss. The offense again struggled to string together damage. The bullpen again had to carry innings, and the game widened late. Banda’s read on Toronto’s contact skills echoed what the Dodgers have dealt with all month. “They’re very good at just putting the bat on the ball,” he said. “That’s what they did tonight.” He circled back to the mental approach the relief corps needs within that reality. “Don’t let it get too big,” Banda said. “You let it get too big, I think it eats you alive.”
Muncy returned to the idea of keeping the day in front of them, not the noise around it. “Nothing that happens the night before has any effect on the next day,” he said. “We have a game tomorrow and that’s it.” It was as matter-of-fact as you’ll hear after two days that could have yanked the clubhouse in opposite directions.
Betts was pressed on whether the long, emotional swings are starting to wear everyone down. His answer cut through the moment. “It’s whatever, however you want to make it,” he said. “We’re 200 games in, so everybody’s tired. Everybody’s emotionally, physically tired. It’s however you need to get ready is how you need to get ready.” He batted away the fatigue excuse for the quiet bats as well. “It’s not our first time scoring two,” he said. “It has nothing to do with it. It’s a World Series and if you can’t get up for a World Series, then you need to find something else.”
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