Only three teams have ever been down 3-0 in the World Series and won a single game and none has ever won two. The Los Angeles Dodgers now lead the New York Yankees three games to none in the World Series and are now just awaiting ring fitting.
The Dodgers have their scheduled bullpen game in Game 4, their fourth bullpen game of this postseason. The others were the pivotal Game 4 of the National League Division Series that staved off elimination, the Mets’ Game 2 victory in the National League Championship Series and the later Game 6 clincher.
A third bullpen victory would give the Dodgers a sweep, the first in the World Series since the San Francisco Giants swept the Detroit Tigers in 2012.
The Dodgers will be playing with almost nothing to lose — a rarity in the World Series, but a fact of life up 3-0 in a best-of-seven series. A loss sets up a clincher Wednesday night, or at worst at home for Game 6. If it is pushed to a Game 7, it’s a whole different argument, but history shows that nobody should really be thinking about that tonight.
Or at least that’s how Dave Roberts, who was part of a Boston Red Sox team that came back from 3-0 in the 2004 ALCS against the Yankees, wants it to be. “Don’t talk about that,” the Dodgers manager said after his team took a 3-0 lead in the series. “Wrong guy. Way too early.”
Because he’s been on the other side, Roberts said, he knows how important it is to do what every team in baseball history has done aside from the one team he happened to be on. “There’s just got to be urgency,” Roberts said of his team’s approach to Game 4. “I just don’t want to let these guys up for air.”
