By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL/Designated Writers

Imagine this scene happening in an Atlanta suburb about four hours after Saturday’s Game 4 of the World Series:

Houston manager Dusty Baker walks into a neighborhood bar as closing time is approaching. He pulls up a stool, looks down the bar and sees a very recognizable face.

“Snit, what are you doing here?”

“Couldn’t sleep, Dusty,” said Atlanta manager Brian Snitker. “Too wired up.”

“Me, too,” Baker says. “Mind if I join you?”

“Let me ask you something, Dusty. Are you getting tired or covering for your front office and the stupid decisions they send down?”

“Tell me about it,” Baker says. “Seriously, I don’t think they know their ass from second base. Literally.”

“I figured,” Snitker says. “There’s no way you would have batted (pitcher) Zack Greinke in the 8-hole without some front office geek telling you to do so because he had come up with some BS chart that said it would work.”

“Snit, I’ve managed 3,700 games in the big leagues. You know how many times I’ve hit the pitcher anywhere other than ninth. Zee-ro. So why in the hell would I do it in Game 4 of the World Series? I mean, Greinke’s a decent hitter for a pitcher, but he ain’t Pete friggin’ Rose.”

“Yep, we took one look at that lineup card and figured (American League batting champion) Yuri Gurriel might as well have walked up there with a piano leg. No way we were going to pitch to him with the pitcher batting behind him.”

“And who has to take the grief for it after the game? The pencil-necked flunkie? Nope, they throw me out there and expect me to be OK with it.”

The bartender interrupts: “Last call, guys. Can I get you one more?”

“Dusty, you got time to hear about what I’m dealing with? I’ll buy.”

“Yeah, sure. I need to get away from it as long as possible. There’s probably some note on my hotel door telling me that I should start (Jose) Altuve at catcher or something.”

“Let me tell you what I’m dealing with,” Snitker says. “I walk in the clubhouse yesterday and some moron who has never seen a complete baseball game in his life is letting me know that I need to start Dylan Lee. I hardly even knew who that was. Dusty, he’d only throw two big league innings in his life! And I’m supposed to start him? I have no idea why. I might as well have started Bob Dylan. And of course, the poor kid puckered up. I got him out of there as soon as I could and got a real pitcher in there. We’re lucky y’all didn’t 10-run us in the first inning.”

“Speaking of taking pitchers out of the game,” Baker says, “That was absolutely the right move taking (Ian) Anderson out of Game 3 after five innings. If this is a game in June, sure, leave him in. But it’s 1-0. He’s one bad pitch from it being tied. Believe me, we wanted you to leave him in. The last thing we wanted to see was those nasty arms coming out of your bullpen.”

“We are here to win the World Series, not just one game,” Snitker says. “You know that; you’ve been here before. When you see a chance to win a game, you go for it. It’s completely different than the regular season.”

The bartender comes back as the bar is now all but empty.

“Gotta close up guys,” he says. “These are on the house. Y’all got enough to worry about.”

By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL/Designated Writers

You always hear that the goal of the visiting team in a 2-3-2 best-of-seven series is to try to split the first two games. The first two games of this year’s World Series might have been the classic case of BOTH teams being happy with a split after Houston’s 7-2 Wednesday night in Game 2.

Atlanta is happy to get a chance to go back to Truist Park with a chance to win it, although it would mean the Braves would have to win all three. Houston knew the Braves had a pitching advantage in the first two games, but Atlanta might be at a pitching disadvantage in the next three games after the injury to Braves ace Charlie Morton.

It wouldn’t have been over for the Astros had they gone down 2-0 in the series, but being at 1-1 might actually be more pleasing to Houston than Atlanta.

Other squeezings from two games at Minute Maid Park:

** Far be it from me to question Fox’s Joe Buck, but it bothers me when he says a pitcher “struck out the side,” which he claimed Houston’s Jose Urquidy did in the first inning. And it was no mistake — he kept bringing up the possibility and then couldn’t wait to say it after Atlanta’s Jorge Soler swung and missed for the third out. But the Braves had two singles in the inning; so how exactly is that striking out the side? Doesn’t it imply that three batters came to the plate and three batters struck out? So if 13 batters come to the plate and a guy gives up 10 home runs, but the other three strike out, is that some great accomplishment?

** Have y’all seen the bat boy in the Braves’ dugout? If the series returns to Houston, you gotta check this guy out. He may pick up bats, but he’s no boy. Looks like he stopped in from the Harley Davidson convention next door. Long hair, full beard and looks like he could bench press a train.

** You can keep telling me how the shift works and I’ll keep telling you how I see evidence that it doesn’t.

** Next time Houston’s Michael Brantley doesn’t have a quality at bat, let me know. I’ll wait.

** After a four-hour game Tuesday night, Urquidy did us all a favor in Game 2.He quickly got in a rhythm on the mound and worked fast. Pitch, get the ball back and throw it again. It took two hours to play a little more than three innings Tuesday night; it was the sixth inning at the two-hour mark Wednesday night.

** Atlanta’s Max Fried may not have had his best stuff — he couldn’t get the Astros to swing and miss — but he did accomplish a secondary goal by pitching into the sixth inning. The Braves went all in for Game 1 by using their four best relievers. The last thing the Braves needed was to use any of these four if they didn’t have to. It wasn’t the outcome the Braves wanted, but they didn’t waste relief pitching capital.