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Only 24 hours following enduring one of the most draining defeats in World Series annals, the Toronto Blue Jays played with complete control.

Guerrero smashed a two-run home run and Bieber provided a steady start as the Blue Jays beat the Dodgers 6-2 in the fourth game on Tuesday evening at Dodger Stadium, squaring the Fall Classic at two wins apiece and guaranteeing the matchup will return to Canada.

Toronto had passed the early hours of the next day processing their marathon Game 3 loss – tied for the lengthiest World Series contest ever – a defeat that denied them the chance to take the lead in the matchup and burned through both bullpens. Skipper Schneider insisted later that “the Dodgers won a contest, not the championship”. A day later, his team offered convincing evidence.

Early Innings

The Dodgers again struck first. Max Muncy walked in the second inning, moved up on a single and scored on Kiké Hernández's sacrifice fly. But the early breakthrough did not shake a Toronto club that topped Major League Baseball with 49 comeback victories this year.

They answered right away in the third. Lukes hit a one away single to center field and Vladimir Guerrero Jr came to the plate hunting a curveball. Ohtani threw a slider up and Guerrero drove it soaring over the left-center wall. It was his initial extra-base hit of the World Series and his 7th homer this postseason – a new team record – restoring the Toronto's lead after 13 shutout innings and shifting the momentum of the game.

Ohtani's Night

That swing also ended Ohtani's history-making streak of 11 consecutive at-bats getting on base. The dual-threat star had hit two homers and reached safely a historic nine times in the Dodgers' Game 3 comeback win. But on that night, he took the mound on limited rest – his briefest ever – after requiring an IV to recover from the prior extra-inning game.

His fastball velocity was below his regular-season average and he struggled more as the game progressed. Even so, he showed flashes of his usual command, retiring 11 of 12 after Guerrero Jr's homer and fanning six. He even walked in the first to continue his World Series streak. But the Blue Jays made him work: six hits and four runs were charged to him in over six innings.

Seventh Inning Rally

The bigger issue for Los Angeles was what followed when he finally lost energy.

Daulton Varsho opened the seventh with a clean hit to right, and Ernie Clement drilled a double off the fence to put runners on with none out. Roberts had no option but to pull Ohtani, who exited to a roaring applause from the home crowd. The Los Angeles' relief corps could not complete the inning.

Banda inherited the jam and immediately trailed in the count. Giménez fought to a 3-2 count before driving in Varsho with a single to left. Ty France followed with a fielder's choice to make it 4-1, and that was sufficient to remove the pitcher out of the game. Treinen came in next but also was unable to stop the momentum: Bo Bichette and Addison Barger hit run-scoring base hits through the diamond, completing a four-run outburst that extended the lead to 6-1.

Toronto's Toughness

The Toronto's ability to absorb early setbacks and answer has characterized their whole postseason. They once again succeeded without Springer, the injured top-of-the-order man who exited the third game after tweaking his right side.

Shane Bieber, in contrast, was exactly what Toronto needed. Traded for during the summer while completing recovery from elbow surgery, the ex- Cy Young winner stranded several baserunners and silenced the Dodgers' dangerous lineup. He allowed one run on four hits and three free passes before Schneider summoned rookie pitcher Fluharty to confront the core of the order in the sixth inning. Fluharty required just four pitches to retire Muncy and Tommy Edman, preserving a fragile advantage that soon grew comfortable.

Converted starter Bassitt then pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth as the Dodgers' bats kept to sputter. The Dodgers have scored only 3 runs over their previous 20 frames, an abrupt downturn for a club that ranked among MLB's top lineups all season.

Final Innings

The Dodgers scraped a run in the ninth when Edman grounded out to score Hernández after a walk and Muncy's two-base hit put two aboard. But Varland finished the game without allowing a comeback to build.

After a game when the Blue Jays left a Fall Classic-record 19 runners and collapsed after repeated of wasted opportunities, Game 4 was ruthlessly effective. Six different Toronto players collected hits, five brought home runs and the squad cashed almost every run-scoring chance available in the late stanzas.

Next Up

The win guarantees the championship title will be awarded at Rogers Centre, where the Toronto have not celebrated a championship since Joe Carter's iconic game-winning homer in 1993. They now are aware they are assured a full house in Canada on Friday night – and possibly the next day – no matter what happens next in Los Angeles.

Game 5 approaches with the series even and momentum shifting to Toronto. Dodgers left-hander Snell (3-1, 2.42 ERA) will attempt to arrest the Blue Jays's surge. Toronto counter with first-year player Yesavage (2-1, 4.26 ERA) in a rematch of Game 1, when the Blue Jays chased Snell early in an 11-4 victory.