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Only 24 hours after staggering through one of the most exhausting losses in World Series history, the Blue Jays displayed complete command.

Guerrero crushed a two-run homer and Shane Bieber provided a steady outing as the Blue Jays beat the Dodgers 6-2 in the fourth game on Tuesday evening at Dodger Stadium, tying the World Series at two games each and ensuring the series will head back to Toronto.

Toronto had spent the early hours of Tuesday dealing with their marathon third game defeat – equal to the lengthiest World Series contest ever – a loss that denied them the chance to lead the matchup and depleted both relief corps. Skipper John Schneider stated afterwards that “they won a game, not the championship”. A day later, his squad provided emphatic evidence.

Initial Innings

The Dodgers again scored first. Max Muncy drew a walk in the second inning, moved up on a base hit and crossed the plate on Hernández's sacrifice fly. But the early score did not rattle a Toronto club that led MLB with 49 comeback victories this year.

They responded right away in the third. Nathan Lukes lined a one-out base hit to centre and Guerrero stepped in hunting a curveball. Shohei Ohtani left a slider up and he sent it soaring over the left-center wall. It was his initial long hit of the World Series and his seventh homer this playoffs – a fresh club mark – regaining the Toronto's advantage after 13 scoreless frames and shifting the momentum of the game.

Shohei's Night

That swing also halted Ohtani's record-setting run of 11 consecutive at-bats reaching base. The dual-threat star had smashed two homers and got on base a record nine times in the Los Angeles' Game 3 comeback win. But on that night, he started on limited rest – his briefest ever – after needing an IV to recover from the previous marathon.

Ohtani pitch speed sat below his regular-season norm and he struggled more as the contest wore on. Nonetheless, he displayed flashes of his usual command, retiring 11 of 12 after Guerrero's homer and fanning six. He even drew a walk in the first to continue his Fall Classic record. But the Blue Jays forced him to labor: six base hits and four runs were charged to him in over six frames.

Seventh Inning Surge

The larger problem for Los Angeles was what came next when Ohtani eventually ran out of steam.

Varsho started the seventh with a clean single to right field, and Ernie Clement drilled a double off the wall to put runners on with no outs. Roberts had no option but to remove Ohtani, who exited to a standing ovation from the local fans. The Los Angeles' relief corps could not finish the escape.

Banda inherited the jam and right away trailed in the count. Andrés Giménez battled to a 3-2 count before scoring the runner with a single to left. Ty France followed with a groundout to make it 4-1, and that was sufficient to knock Banda out of the game. Blake Treinen came in next but also failed to stop the momentum: Bichette and Addison Barger punched RBI base hits through the diamond, completing a four-score outburst that extended the lead to 6-1.

Toronto's Toughness

The Blue Jays's ability to absorb initial setbacks and answer has characterized their entire run. They once again did it without George Springer, the hurt top-of-the-order man who left Game 3 after tweaking his right side.

Shane Bieber, meanwhile, was exactly what Toronto needed. Acquired mid-season while completing recovery from elbow surgery, the ex- Cy Young winner left multiple runners and silenced the Los Angeles' potent batting order. He allowed one run on four hits and three free passes before Schneider called on first-year pitcher Fluharty to confront the core of the order in the sixth inning. Fluharty required just four pitches to retire Max Muncy and Tommy Edman, preserving a fragile advantage that soon became safe.

Converted starting pitcher Chris Bassitt then pitched a clean seventh and eighth innings as the Los Angeles' offense kept to sputter. The Dodgers have produced only three scores over their last 20 innings, an abrupt slowdown for a team that ranked among baseball's top offenses all season.

Closing Moments

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

Following a game when the Blue Jays stranded a World Series-record 19 runners and fell apart after wave upon wave of missed chances, the fourth contest was brutally effective. Six different Toronto players recorded hits, 5 drove in scores and the team cashed almost every run-scoring opportunity available in the late innings.

Next Up

The victory guarantees the championship title will be awarded at their home stadium, where the Blue Jays have not won a title since Joe Carter's famous game-winning home run in 1993. They now know they are guaranteed a packed house in Canada on Friday night – and perhaps the next day – no matter what occurs next in Los Angeles.

The fifth game looms with the series reset and momentum shifting north. Dodgers pitcher Snell (3-1, 2.42 ERA) will try to arrest the Blue Jays's surge. Toronto counter with rookie Yesavage (2-1, 4.26 ERA) in a repeat of the opener, when the Toronto chased Snell quickly in an decisive victory.