Blue Jays' Shane Bieber had a weird night before his massive World Series Game 4 pitching start

Baseball players, especially starting pitchers, are creatures of habit.

Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Shane Bieber didn't get to partake in his usual habits Monday night into Tuesday, when he'll start Game 4 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

That's because Game 3 went 18 innings.

Instead of Bieber getting to go back to the hotel by 9 or 10 p.m. local time in L.A., he wasn't in bed until well after midnight.

And even worse than that, he didn't get to just watch comfortably from the dugout as the Blue Jays played. By about the 16th inning, Bieber had gone down to the bullpen to start stretching. If the marathon game didn't end, Bieber would have to come in and pitch at some point.

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At least based on the Fox broadcast, it didn't appear Bieber actually threw warmup pitches off the mound, so his arm should be about as fresh as usual when he takes the mound Tuesday night.

There's no telling how a night like that can impact focus and preparation, though. Would Bieber sleep in longer than usual? Would he do anything different in his pregame routine at the ballpark?

It's very likely Bieber planned on changing nothing and would just deal with the fact that he slept a tad less and had an oddly eventful day before his start.

It's not like the guy on the other side had a normal night. Shohei Ohtani isn't normal, though. He always hits before he pitches. This time, he just happened to reach base nine times (2 HR, 2 2B, 5 BB).

They'll both be running on a different sort of adrenaline in Game 4. The Dodgers have a 2-1 series lead, and Bieber needs to deliver a gem for Toronto.

This is why the Blue Jays traded for him, and weird night or not, it's Bieber's time to make that pay off.

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