What to Expect From Game 4: Bullpen Game Takes Center Stage at World Series

The Diamondbacks and Rangers each will turn to their pens, while both teams also feature stars who are breaking out of playoff slumps.

PHOENIX — The Rangers beat the Diamondbacks 3–1 in Game 3 of the World Series on Monday night to take a 2–1 series lead. The teams return to action on Tuesday for Game 4, when a revolving door of pitchers and a few streaky hitters may make the difference.

Bullpenning

Two games after a throwback in which both starting pitchers made it into the seventh, the Rangers and the Diamondbacks will return to 2023 baseball with the bullpen game. Texas has a few starters pitching out of the bullpen—lefties Andrew Heaney and Martín Pérez and righty Dane Dunning—who can give them a little length. (Righty Jon Gray, who was a candidate to start Game 4, came in in relief when Game 3 starter Max Scherzer left before the fourth with back tightness.) Arizona will turn to a series of three- to six-out guys.

The dangers here are threefold: Every time you summon another pitcher, you take the risk that he doesn’t have it today; you can exhaust your entire relief corps with Game 5 looming; and hitters get much more dangerous each time they see a pitcher. But neither team has much choice.

Neither manager was willing to commit before Game 3 to a Game 4 starter; both said it would depend on how Game 3 went.

“I don't know what that answer is,” Diamondbacks skipper Torey Lovullo said. “But we have a couple of bulk guys we know of in our bullpen. And Don Drysdale is not going to fall out of the sky. It's definitely going to be somebody in our bullpen that's going to start the day tomorrow. Who it is and where it is depends on where we get through tonight.”

No John Smoltz either?

“He's around,” Lovullo said. “I might ask him. Good splitter.”

Christian Walker showed signs of emerging from a slump with a double in Game 3 :: Rob Schumacher/The Republic/USA TODAY NETWORK

Slumps, Busted?

Perhaps the most remarkable part of the Diamondbacks’ and Rangers’ World Series runs is that both have gotten here without much offensive contribution from a key hitter: Arizona first baseman Christian Walker, who is hitting .173, and Texas second baseman Marcus Semien, who is hitting .197. 

Walker has been hitting the ball hard but right at people; Semien has been able to control the strike zone but has popped up his pitch when he gets it. But both showed signs of emerging from their slumps in Game 3. Walker, who strode the plate in the second to an ovation from Chase Field fans hoping to show support, doubled in his first at bat. Semien, whom manager Bruce Bochy has not dropped from the leadoff spot, had an RBI single in the third. But then they both went 0-for the rest of the night.

Ketel Two-Oh?

With his sixth-inning single, Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte extended his record postseason hitting streak to 19 games—and tied the single-season postseason mark at 15. (Alcides Escobar of the 2015 Royals did it too.) Marte has a chance to make it 20 (and 16) straight in Game 4. If Arizona wins the World Series, it’s hard to see how anyone else is named MVP—he’s hitting .333 with a .907 OPS this month. For all the talented youngsters the Diamondbacks employ, it’s this 30-year-old veteran who provides must-see baseball every time he comes to the plate right now.