The Red Sox & Dodgers played Game 3 like there was no tomorrow. But there is a tomorrow, today.

LOS ANGELES — Both teams played Game 3 of the World Series like there was no tomorrow, and it produced a true Fall Classic and the longest game in postseason history. However there is a tomorrow, which is now today, and the Dodgers suddenly look in better shape to make this a series with the Red Sox than they did at various points on Friday.

The Dodgers had to play with abandon in Game 3, because the history of teams down 3-0 in the postseason is not pretty. Sure, manager Dave Roberts was a player for the one team that actually pulled off the miracle comeback — in the 2004 ALCS — but it’s still a bleak picture. In the 24 times in the World Series that a team fell behind 3-0, they were swept 21 times. In the other three series, it was over in Game 5.

But it was the Red Sox, who were in great shape up 2-0, who were the aggressors, trying to grab this series by the jugular and not let go. It just didn’t work out on Friday.

“It was just a bad night. We had some situations that we could have put them away and then we didn’t,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “And at the end we paid the price.”

Whether the costs of Game 3 extend into Game 4 or beyond remains to be seen, but here were the instances Friday night that we normally don’t see in baseball.

The original plan was for Nathan Eovaldi to start Game 3 of the World Series, but then he pitched in the first two games in Boston, each time delivering a sparkling inning of relief to help close out both contests. This has been normal for the Red Sox, using what Cora calls The Rover to pitch an inning in between starts. Between Eovaldi, Rick Porcello and Chris Sale, Boston used a starter in relief six times in their first 11 postseason games.

So the plan for Eovaldi shifted to starting in Game 4, but knowing he’d be available in relief in Game 3 if needed.

It was so needed.

Eovaldi entered in relief in the 12th inning, which seems so very long ago now.

Look at the time stamp on that thing. There was still two hours and 36 minutes left to go in this game. Good gravy.

The game ended with Eovaldi still on the mound, or walking off of it at least. He pitched six glorious innings, and part of a seventh, allowing only two runs (one earned). Eovaldi was tagged with the loss, which seems cruel given how well he pitched.

“What Nate did tonight, that was amazing,” Cora said.

We might not have even seen Eovaldi at all had this game gone according to plan for the Dodgers, who got seven wonderful, scoreless innings out of rookie Walker Buehler.

Kenley Jansen has had his struggles this season — going from superhuman reliever to mere mortal at times — but in the playoffs seemed to turn it around. He had 10 strikeouts in 6⅔ scoreless innings this postseason entering Friday.

Jansen also hadn’t pitched in six days, so he was well rested to take the added load of two innings, something he did once before this October and five times in the previous two postseasons combined.

“We felt that in a must-win game to go to Kenley for two innings, we liked that,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “That was the plan. It didn’t work out.”

It didn’t work out because Jansen left a cutter over the plate in the eighth inning to Jackie Bradley Jr., who deposited it into the seats to tie up the game.

It was reminiscent of Game 2 of last year’s World Series, when Marwin Gonzalez took Jansen deep in the ninth — his second inning of work that night — in what would be one of two extra-inning games the Dodgers would lose in that Fall Classic. This time they won, thanks in part to Jansen adding his second inning of work in Game 3 after giving up the home run, to keep the game tied.

Remember The Rover that I mentioned above? Even before Eovaldi pitched Friday, they did that too, only this time it was using Game 2 starter David Price in the ninth inning of Game 3.

Price allowed a hit but also got two outs and helped keep the game tied. This has been a tremendous week and a half for Price, whose narrative of an October choker has fallen to the wayside. He was winless in his first 11 postseason starts — with some very good relief work mixed in too — but that streak was snapped with a brilliant start on short-rest to close out the Astros in Game 5 of the ALCS, and that was after he warmed up in the bullpen for two innings, ready to take the ball in Game 4 if needed.

Price then won again with a very good start in Game 2 of the World Series, and found himself pitching two days later. That sure looks like an October hero to me.

A footnote here is that Craig Kimbrel got the final out of the ninth inning for Price, then pitched a scoreless 10th. This is minor, but not all managers would use their closer in a tie game on the road, most opting instead to keep their best weapon available for a future save opportunity that may or may not come. Cora sensed the urgency, and it was refreshing.

So where do we go from here? The Red Sox still lead the series 2-1, so they are in good shape, but given how Boston used their pitching staff so aggressively on Friday the Dodgers are in good position heading into Saturday and a now necessary Sunday.

“Considering what we went through tonight, we’re in good shape with our pen, we really are,” Roberts said. “But considering where they’re at over there, and where we’re at, I like where we’re at.”

Down 2-1 certainly beats down 3-0.

For the Red Sox, Eovaldi certainly won’t start Game 4, not after 97 pitches on Friday night (more than anyone other Red Sox pitcher in the game, 36 more than the starter Porcello). Then again, nothing would surprise me in this World Series. Boston on Saturday could turn to Chris Sale on short rest, though that seems unlikely. The most likely starters for the Red Sox in Game 4 are Drew Pomeranz, who didn’t pitch at all on Friday, or Eduardo Rodriguez, who only threw six pitches.

Technically the Red Sox starter is TBA, with Cora saying only his starter would be left-handed. That doesn’t narrow it down, since Sale, Pomeranz and Rodriguez are all southpaws.

The Dodgers have Rich Hill rested and ready to go, but even they threw a wrench into things by announcing early Saturday morning (or late Friday night, depending on your point of view) that their Game 4 starter was TBD. This seems like gamesmanship more than anything else — you don’t want to tell us your starter, fine, then we won’t tell you ours — but we’ll see.

I don’t know if the Dodgers will reap the benefits of the Red Sox trying to win Game 3 at all costs, even possibly weakening their position in Game 4. But I do know that Game 3 was a chaotic, thrilling, and agonizing mess, which made it all worth it.

“There’s a lot of guys a little banged up, but they grind it out,” Cora said. “This is what I signed in for, that effort, from pitch one all the way to the end. Sign me in, it’s cool.”