Seven game series between closely matched teams are like three-dimensional chess. Here’s another metaphor: individual games swing momentum, but below the surface, pitching matchups and bullpen usage do the work of tectonic plates. Nowhere was this more obvious than the 2017 WS. Roberts used up his best guys (remember Brandon Morrow, who was lights out in the NLDS and CS, and then pitched every game in the WS and was toast by Game 4?), and Hinch had Charlie Morton and Brad Peacock to get big outs and keep the foot on the throat. Thus was the WS won.
Which brings us to Game 4 of the 2023 ALDS.