It’s time for two Game 4s of the National League Division Series after the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies avoided being eliminated from the MLB playoffs.
Will the Cubs and Phillies force decisive Game 5s on Thursday – or will the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers advance to the NLCS?
We bring you pre-match lineups and keys as well as takeaways after the finale of each match.
Philadelphia Phillies vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (6:08 p.m. ET)
Los Angeles leads the series 2-1
Match 4 starters: Cristopher Sanchez vs. Tyler Glasnow
How the Phillies can even the series: The Phillies have the edge in the starting pitcher comparison, with Game 1 starter Sanchez coming off a regular season in which he was one of the five best starters in baseball and a strong outing in Game 1, with four days of rest against Glasnow, who hasn’t pitched much over the past two weeks and struggled with control issues down the stretch (and walked two of the eight batters he faced in a relief appearance in the first game).
Thanks to Ranger Suarez’s great effort on Wednesday, the bullpen will also be in good shape, so the path to victory is through a shutdown effort from Sanchez, then some high-leverage relievers (with a better performance than provided in Game 1). There’s no doubt the offensive game plan will be to get Glasnow to increase his pitch count and then introduce the soft underbelly of the Dodgers bullpen into the game earlier than Dave Roberts would like. Oh, and a Bryce Harper home run mixed in will help, too. –David Schoenfield
Compositions
Phillies
To be determined
Dodgers
To be determined
Milwaukee Brewers vs. Chicago Cubs (9:08 p.m. ET)
Milwaukee leads series 2-1
Match 4 starters: To be determined or to be determined
How the Cubs can tie the series: With their pitching closer to disaster than full strength, the Cubs’ best bet to even the series is to score more runs than they have in their first six playoff games. They finally managed four runs for the first time in October – all in the first inning of Game 3 – and then stopped there. In fact, they haven’t scored a run since the second inning in the last two games. After using all of their best relievers on Wednesday, there’s no guarantee they’ll be as sharp on Thursday, so a few innings with crooked numbers on the board offensively could be the difference for Chicago. -Jesse Rogers
Compositions
Brewers
To be determined
Small
To be determined
