Heading into game 4 of the World Series the Dodgers were playing with house money. They had a 3-0 lead, the Yankees bats had been quiet all series, while their bats were producing big time hits/homeruns. The Yankess had a solid but fairly inexperienced pitcher starting game 4 for them and the Dodgers, whose rotation is decimated with injuries, planned to have a bullpen game.

A sweep seemed a strong possibility. But that's not what happened. The Yankees bats roared back to life and they avoided elimination winning 11-4. The Dodgers still have a 3-1 series lead and in all likelihood will win the WS either tonight or on Friday but they gave the Yankees life and let them believe they could hit again. A somewhat dangerous proposition when the Yankees will feature Gerrit Cole- their best pitcher and one of the league's best- in game 5 and Carlos Rodon- a guy who at times can be dominant- if it goes to game 6. As we know in a game 7 scenario in the unlikely event it gets there, anything can happen.

Here's is where I think the Dodgers might have made a strategic error in game 4. Last time they had a bullpen game they pitched 5 out of their top 6 relievers. Last night, only 1. Albeit, he was the one that gave up the grand slam to give the Yankees a 5-2 lead, but that was so early in the game that the Dodgers potent offense had more than enough time to come back. But after that moment it seems like the Dodgers punted on the game and just hoped to win in a shootout. They used two pitchers I have never even heard of. Clearly they did not put their best arms on the mound and hoped to win a 10-8 game or something along those lines and if not have all their best pitchers fresh and ready for tomorrow.

The thing about tomorrow though is you never know what is going to happen. Gerrit Cole might go out there and absolutely dominate, while Jack Flaherty has a bad game (he was great last game but he has put up some stinkers in the playoffs) and having all your top relievers fresh might not matter.

I think the Dodgers took the measured approach once the Yankees went up 5-2 and kind of punted on the game. They only ended up scoring 4 runs so maybe it was the right call, but the dregs of the bullpen giving up runs every time the Dodgers tried to claw back might have had the hitters trying to do too much (there was a lot of uncharacteristic swing and miss outside the zone from Dodger hitters in those late innings). It's impossible to know what would have happened if the Dodgers had used all their top guns instead of the guys no one has heard of.

What do you think Stackers? Did the Dodgers make the right call punting on the game and preserving all their top arms for tonight, while the Yankees used all of theirs. Or should they have gone all out and tried to finish them last night?

Sats for all, GR