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Only 24 hours after enduring one of the most draining defeats in World Series history, the Blue Jays played with complete command.

Guerrero crushed a two-run homer and Shane Bieber provided a composed outing as Toronto beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2 in the fourth game on Tuesday evening at Dodger Stadium, squaring the Fall Classic at two games each and ensuring the series will return to Toronto.

Toronto had passed the early hours of Tuesday dealing with their marathon third game defeat – equal to the lengthiest Fall Classic game ever – a defeat that denied them the chance to lead the series and burned through both relief corps. Skipper Schneider insisted afterwards that “the Dodgers won a contest, not the World Series”. Twenty-three hours later, his team provided emphatic proof.

Early Innings

The Los Angeles again struck first. Max Muncy drew a walk in the second, moved up on a base hit and scored on Kiké Hernández's sacrifice fly. But the initial breakthrough did not rattle a Blue Jays club that led MLB with 49 come-from-behind victories this season.

They responded immediately in the third inning. Lukes hit a one away single to centre and Guerrero came to the plate hunting a breaking ball. Ohtani threw a sweeper up and Guerrero drove it screaming over the left-center wall. It was his initial long hit of the World Series and his 7th homer this postseason – a new club record – regaining the Blue Jays's advantage after 13 scoreless innings and changing the momentum of the night.

Ohtani's Night

That hit also halted Shohei Ohtani's record-setting streak of 11 consecutive at-bats reaching base. The dual-threat star had hit two homers and reached safely a record nine times in the Los Angeles' third game walk-off. But on that night, he took the mound on limited rest – his shortest ever – after requiring an IV to recover from the prior extra-inning game.

Ohtani fastball velocity sat below his regular-season average and he labored more as the contest wore on. Nonetheless, he showed glimpses of his usual control, setting down 11 of 12 after Guerrero's blast and fanning six. He even drew a walk in the first to extend his World Series record. But the Blue Jays forced him to labor: six hits and four earned runs were credited to him in six-plus innings.

Seventh Inning Surge

The larger issue for Los Angeles was what followed when Ohtani finally ran out of steam.

Daulton Varsho started the seventh inning with a clean hit to right field, and Ernie Clement drilled a two-base hit off the fence to put two on with no outs. Dave Roberts had little choice but to pull the starter, who exited to a roaring applause from the home crowd. The Los Angeles' bullpen could not finish the escape.

Banda came into the jam and immediately trailed in the count. Andrés Giménez battled to a full count before driving in Varsho with a single to left field. France came up next with a groundout to make it 4-1, and that was sufficient to knock the pitcher out of the game. Treinen entered next but also was unable to stop the momentum: Bichette and Addison Barger punched run-scoring base hits through the diamond, completing a four-run outburst that pushed the margin to 6-1.

Toronto's Resilience

The Toronto's ability to absorb initial blows and answer has characterized their entire postseason. They once again did it without George Springer, the hurt top-of-the-order man who left Game 3 after tweaking his oblique.

Bieber, in contrast, was everything Toronto needed. Traded for mid-season while finishing recovery from elbow surgery, the former Cy Young winner left several baserunners and quieted the Los Angeles' dangerous batting order. He gave up one run on four base hits and three free passes before the manager called on rookie pitcher Fluharty to confront the core of the order in the sixth inning. He required just 4 pitches to get out Max Muncy and Edman, preserving a narrow advantage that soon grew safe.

Converted starting pitcher Bassitt then worked a scoreless seventh and eighth as the Los Angeles' offense kept to struggle. Los Angeles have scored only 3 runs over their last 20 innings, an sudden slowdown for a club that ranked among baseball's elite lineups all season.

Closing Innings

The Dodgers scraped a run in the ninth when Tommy Edman hit into an out to score Teoscar Hernández after a walk and Muncy's double put runners on base. But Varland finished the game without permitting a rally to develop.

Following a night when Toronto left a World Series-record 19 runners and collapsed after repeated of wasted chances, the fourth contest was brutally efficient. 6 different Toronto players collected base hits, 5 drove in scores and the team cashed almost every run-scoring opportunity presented in the final innings.

Next Up

The victory guarantees the championship title will be awarded at their home stadium, where the Blue Jays have not celebrated a championship since Carter's iconic walk-off home run in 1993. They now know they are assured a packed crowd in Toronto on Friday evening – and possibly the next day – no matter what occurs next in LA.

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