The Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers' clubhouses won't have too many players at 100% after their 18-inning thriller in Game 3 on Monday night. It looks like the game took a bigger toll on Toronto, as they lost on a Freddie Freeman walk-off home run, and also lost George Springer to an injury. Add in that the Blue Jays might not be able to start Bo Bichette, as he is still recovering from an ailing knee injury, and Game 4 could be a difficult night.
“Second baseman Bo Bichette, who drove in Vladimir Guerrero Jr. from first base with the go-ahead run in the seventh, also figures to be questionable. Schneider pinch-ran for Bichette after his single, mindful that his player is essentially in spring-training mode, building back up after missing nearly seven weeks with a sprained right knee,” Ken Rosenthal wrote, via The Athletic. “It might be too much to ask Bichette to start back-to-back days.”
The Blue Jays already adopted that strategy in between Games 1 and 2. Bichette was the starting second baseman and batted clean-up for Game 1, but manager John Schneider used him as a pinch-hitter in Game 2. Even though the coaching staff removed Bichette in the 7th inning and he didn't have to play the game's last 11 innings, he might still not be able to play on back-to-back nights.
Bichette's removal from the game is already a hot topic, as Schneider's quest to get faster runners on base earlier in the game left him without some of his best hitters for over half the game. Bichette, Alejandro Kirk, and Addison Barger all had to sit and watch Toronto's offense sputter in extra innings, along with Springer, who left with the injury. Bichette's possible inability to play on Tuesday night would be a massive blow to the team's offense against Shohei Ohtani.
