As of Tuesday, the last eight World Series games have been won by the team that scored first. When Freddie Freeman hit a two-run home run to give the relentless Los Angeles Dodgers a first-inning lead in Game 4 of the World Series on Tuesday night, I instinctively wondered whether the Dodgers would be able to pull off a win over the New York City Dodgers York Yankees achieve a modern version of the Big Red Machine.

Then a long-awaited offensive outburst by the Yankees over the next eight innings raised the possibility that the Dodgers could become the 2004 Yankees instead.

That’s what life looks like in October (and maybe November?) for the Dodgers, who are still well-positioned to win their eighth championship even after the Yankees avoided elimination with an 11-4 victory.

Freeman’s latest blast — he has hit a home run in each of his last six World Series games since 2021, a Fall Classic record — was overshadowed by Anthony Volpe’s go-ahead grand slam in the third inning and a five-run eighth by the Yankees , who managed to avoid being defeated in the World Series for the first time since the Cincinnati Reds in 1976, made the difference.

The long- and short-term history suggests that the celebration was postponed for just one night. The Yankees are the first team to force a Game 5 after going three games to none since the Reds lost to the Baltimore Orioles in the 1970 World Series. No team in a 0-3 hole in the World Series has ever forced a Game 6, let alone actually pulled off the historic comeback.

“At the end of the day, we’re still in a pretty good position and feeling good,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

Of course, memories of baseball’s only 0-3 comeback are omnipresent before, during and after every game of this World Series. Former Yankees Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez engage in a heated argument on Fox’s pregame and postgame show with David Ortiz, who won the ALCS MVP award as the Boston Red Sox made history in 2004. This comeback was sparked by Roberts stealing second base in the ninth inning of Game 4 before scoring the winning run on Bill Mueller’s single.

But these Dodgers are not the Yankees, whose pitching staff was depleted by playing the last four games in four days due to a rainout between Games 2 and 3. There are no more bullpen days for Los Angeles, which has Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Walker Buehler – who combined to allow one run over 11 1/3 innings in the victorious Games 2 and 3 – is ready to go if Jack Flaherty does tonight cannot win.

In other words, Kevin Brown isn’t walking in the door for the Dodgers, who have lost just a single game in a row this month and haven’t lost four games in a row since July. Los Angeles responded to its NL Championship Series losses to the New York Mets with an 8-0 victory in Game 3 and a decisive 10-5 victory in Game 6.

Still, the Dodgers’ quiet final seven innings were a reminder of how quickly the Yankees had cooled off in 2004, when they scored 32 runs in the first three games and had a 4-3 lead in the ninth inning of Game 4, before Roberts’ steal led to a disastrous save from Mariano Rivera. The Yankees have scored nine runs in their last three games and have trailed from the start in each of their last two losses.

Aside from Freeman, who has more RBIs (10) than the rest of his teammates combined (eight), the Dodgers have also been pretty quiet in this series. Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts, ahead of fellow likely Hall of Famer Freeman in the Dodgers’ lineup, are batting .200 (6-for-30) with no home runs and two RBIs so far. Even Freeman was largely all-or-nothing: He has just one hit — his first-inning triple in Game 1 — outside of his four home runs.

The Game 4 win also further strengthened the Yankees, who have embraced their underdog role. The Yankees as David trying to take down a Goliath is usually a ridiculous concept, but it makes them otherwise dangerous – especially if the series’ best starting pitcher, Gerrit Cole, is ready to take a normal break tonight to insert.

“I still think we could shock the world,” said infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. “I think the one thing about us is we love history and we love making history. So we’re out here right now trying to make history.”

This also applies to the Dodgers, who are one win away from repeating the comparisons with the Big Red Machine, whose ’76 juggernaut roster includes Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Tony Perez, as well as the all-timer -Hit king Pete Rose.

But with another loss, the Dodgers will be in for a very different story.