It’s time for a pair of a Game 4s in the National League Division Series after the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies avoided getting swept out of the MLB playoffs.
Will the Cubs and Phillies, on Thursday, force decisive Game 5s — or will the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers move on to the NLCS?
We’ve got you covered with pregame lineups and keys along with takeaways after the final out of each game.
Philadelphia Phillies at Los Angeles Dodgers (6:08 p.m. ET)
Los Angeles leads series 2-1
Game 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 top five starters in baseball and an excellent outing in Game 1, going on four days of rest vs. Glasnow, who hasn’t pitched much the past two-plus weeks and battled some control issues down the stretch (and walked two of the eight batters he faced in a Game 1 relief appearance).
Thanks to Ranger Suarez’s great effort on Wednesday, the bullpen will be in good shape as well, so the path to victory is a shutdown effort from Sanchez and then the high-leverage relievers (with a better performance than they provided in Game 1). No doubt, the offensive game plan will be to get Glasnow to run up his pitch count and then get 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 there will help as well. — David Schoenfield
Lineups
Phillies
1. Trea Turner (R) SS
2. Kyle Schwarber (L) DH
3. Bryce Harper (L) 1B
4. Alec Bohm (R) 3B
5. Brandon Marsh (L) CF
6. J.T. Realmuto (R) C
7. Max Kepler (L) LF
8. Nick Castellanos (R) RF
9. Bryson Stott (L) 2B
Dodgers
1. Shohei Ohtani (L) DH
2. Mookie Betts (R) SS
3. Teoscar Hernandez (R) RF
4. Freddie Freeman (L) 1B
5. Tommy Edman (S) 2B
6. Will Smith (R) C
7. Alex Call (R) LF
8. Enrique Hernandez (R) 3B
9. Andy Pages (R) CF
Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago Cubs (9:08 p.m. ET)
Milwaukee leads series 2-1
Game 4 starters: Freddy Peralta vs. Matthew Boyd
How the Cubs can even the series: With their pitching leaning closer to shambles than full-go, the Cubs’ best bet to even the series is by scoring more runs than they have in any of their first six postseason games. They finally got to four runs for the first time this October — all coming in the first inning of Game 3 — then stopped there. In fact, they haven’t scored a run from the second inning on in either of the last two games. After using all their top 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 make the difference for Chicago. — Jesse Rogers
Lineups
Brewers
1. Christian Yelich (L) DH
2. Jackson Chourio (R) LF
3. William Contreras (R) C
4. Brice Turang (L) 2B
5. Andrew Vaughn (R) 1B
6. Caleb Durbin (R) 3B
7. Sal Frelick (L) RF
8. Blake Perkins (S) CF
9. Joey Ortiz (R) SS
Cubs
1. Michael Busch (L) 1B
2. Nico Hoerner (R) 2B
3. Kyle Tucker (L) DH
4. Seiya Suzuki (R) RF
5. Ian Happ (S) LF
6. Carson Kelly (R) C
7. Pete Crow-Armstrong (L) CF
8. Dansby Swanson (R) SS
9. Matt Shaw (R) 3B
