2017 World Series Game 4: Dodgers vs. Astros, Saturday 10/28, 7 p.m. CT

The fourth game of any best-of-seven series is the most pivotal. If a team is up three games to none, obviously they can close out a sweep in Game 4.

If the series is two games to one, clearly the team trailing has great incentive to tie it up, otherwise they face the proposition of having to win three straight in order to take the series.

I can think of a team that did that, quite recently in fact.

The Astros are playing like a team that wants to close this thing out by Sunday. On the other hand... the Dodgers are a pretty good ballclub. It could still go either way.

Here are today’s particulars.

Alex Wood vs. Charlie Morton

Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Alex Wood has made exactly one start in the last month — Game 4 of the NLCS against the Cubs, the only game the Cubs won in the series. Will that long layoff hurt him? He served up a pair of homers in that game, to Willson Contreras and Javier Baez. He has faced the Astros just once in his career, and that was more than three years ago; only three current Astros have ever faced him.

Charlie Morton got pounded in Game 3 of the ALCS, then was brilliant in Game 7. Which one is the real Morton? He’s faced the Dodgers twice in his career. The last time was two years ago, and so, like Wood, he’s faced very few of the current opposition. Chase Utley is 5-for-10 against him with a home run.

Tonight’s game is on Fox-TV. Announcers: Joe Buck, John Smoltz, Tom Verducci and Ken Rosenthal.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday (classic mode)

(Note: Going forward, I am going to link to the “classic” Gameday here because MLB.com broke the links I used to use to get to their “new” Gameday. If you click on this link, you can then click on “New Gameday” at the bottom of the page to get to the updated version. Note that the “classic” Gameday won’t load until just before game time.)

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

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This is the only thread for today’s game. Enjoy, and discuss amongst yourselves.