World Series News: Rays Stun Brewers 4-3 in 12 Innings
The Milwaukee Brewers were three outs from a championship on Tuesday night. They had survived a long, tight game, taken the lead on a rookie’s home run in the top of the 12th inning, and needed only three more outs to complete a sweep and win the first World Series title in franchise history. Instead, the Tampa Bay Rays produced one of the great escapes in recent Fall Classic history, scoring twice in the bottom of the 12th to win 4-3 in Game 4 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg and force the series to a fifth game.
The loss was crushing for Milwaukee in the most literal sense. The Brewers had not lost a game since the opening round of the postseason, and they still lead the best-of-seven series 3-1, with two more chances to close it out at home if the series returns to Wisconsin. But the sweep is gone, and a Rays team that looked finished on Monday night now has a pulse and a path, however narrow, back into the series.
World Series News: The 12th Inning That Saved Tampa Bay’s Season
The top of the 12th belonged to Cooper Pratt. The rookie shortstop, who had already driven in a run with a double in the fourth inning, stepped in against Tampa Bay reliever Ian Seymour and turned on a 2-2 sweeper, sending it over the wall in left-center field for a solo home run that gave Milwaukee a 3-2 lead. It was the fourth hit of the night for Pratt, who finished 4-for-5, and it was the kind of moment that defines a young career: a go-ahead home run in extra innings of a World Series clincher, hit by a 22-year-old playing in his first Fall Classic. Jackson Chourio kept the pressure on with a two-out double off Seymour later in the same inning, his second hit of the game.
What followed was a collapse as sudden as it was complete. Junior Caminero opened the inning by reaching base on a throwing error by Milwaukee third baseman Joey Ortiz, a mistake that put the tying run aboard with nobody out and chased starter Antonio Senzatela from the game. Shane Drohan came on in relief and did not retire a batter. Liam Hicks singled to put runners on the corners, and Jonny DeLuca followed with a single up the middle that scored pinch runner Cedric Mullins and tied the game at 3-3. Chandler Simpson then singled to load the bases, and pinch hitter Ben Williamson stepped in for Victor Mesa Jr. and roped the first pitch he saw into right field, over the head of first baseman Jake Bauers, to score pinch runner Nick Fortes with the winning run.
Five Rays in a row had reached base, four of them on singles off Drohan, and the game was over before Milwaukee could record a single out in the inning. The two runs that scored were the difference in the game, and one of them was unearned because of the error that started it all. The Rays finished with nine hits to Milwaukee’s eight in a game that lasted well past midnight on the East Coast.
MLB News: Cooper Pratt’s Homer and the Rally That Answered It
The story of Game 4 is really two stories, and the first belongs to Pratt. The rookie’s night was remarkable even before the home run. He had singled twice, doubled home a run in the fourth inning to tie the game at 1-1, and played a central role in everything Milwaukee did offensively. The 2-2 sweeper from Seymour caught too much of the plate, and Pratt did not miss it. For a few minutes, it looked like the defining swing of the series.
The second story is the rally that answered it, and it belongs to a group of Rays who had no business winning this game. Caminero’s trip to first base on the error was the break Tampa Bay needed, and the hitters who followed made the most of it. DeLuca’s hit up the middle tied the game, Simpson’s loaded the bases, and Williamson’s ended it, and the sequence was so fast that the Brewers never had a chance to regroup. The Rays had managed only two runs through eleven innings, and then scored two more in the space of five batters.
Jackson Chourio Ties Babe Ruth in a Losing Cause
The other headline from Game 4 has nothing to do with the final score and everything to do with history. Jackson Chourio, the Brewers’ 22-year-old left fielder, recorded his 10th hit of the World Series in the 12th inning, lining a two-out double off Seymour, and in doing so he tied a record that had belonged exclusively to Babe Ruth since 1928. No player other than Ruth had ever collected 10 hits in the first four games of a World Series, and the mark had stood alone for 98 years. Chourio now shares it, and he did it while batting 10-for-20 through the first four games, with multiple hits in every game of the series.
The achievement is remarkable for its own sake, and it is even more remarkable given the context. Chourio is 22 years old and playing in his first World Series, and he has been the most consistent hitter on either team. He went 4-for-5 in Game 3, when he helped Milwaukee move within one victory of the title, and he has now produced at least two hits in all four games. He is the youngest player to record a four-hit game in the World Series since Joe Garagiola did it for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1946, and he has now added a Ruth-tying performance to a postseason that was already the best of his young career.
Who Won the Game Last Night — and What 3-1 Means
For fans asking who won the game last night, the answer is Tampa Bay, 4-3, in 12 innings. The Rays scored two runs in the bottom of the 12th to overcome a 3-2 deficit, with Ben Williamson’s walk-off single driving home the winning run. Tampa Bay had opened the scoring in the second on Simpson’s double, Milwaukee tied it on Pratt’s fourth-inning double and again on Hamilton’s fifth-inning homer, and the game stayed 2-2 until the 12th. The final box score shows Tampa Bay with four runs on nine hits and one error, Milwaukee with three runs on eight hits and two errors.
The result changes the shape of the series without changing who controls it. Milwaukee still leads 3-1, and the Brewers still need only one more win to claim the franchise’s first championship. But the sweep is gone, and with it the sense of inevitability that had built up over the first three games. The Rays are only the fifth team in history to win Game 4 after falling behind 3-0 in a World Series, and no team trailing 3-0 has ever forced a Game 6, let alone a Game 7. The only team in baseball history to win a playoff series after trailing 3-0 is the 2004 Boston Red Sox, who did it in the American League Championship Series, not the World Series.
The loss was also only the second of the entire postseason for Milwaukee, which had won eight consecutive playoff games before Tuesday night. The Brewers had been the most dominant team in the playoffs, winning with relentless at-bats, aggressive baserunning, and pitching that kept opponents quiet. The player injury update to watch came on the very first play of the rally. Caminero came up limping after reaching first base on the error, and he was noticeably hobbled as he made his way around the bases before being lifted for pinch runner Cedric Mullins. His status for Game 5 will be one of the first questions Tampa Bay has to answer.
What Happens Next: Game 5 and the Road Back to Milwaukee
The series continues on Wednesday night with Game 5 at Tropicana Field, and the stakes could not be clearer. For fans asking what time does the game start, first pitch is scheduled for 7:08 p.m. Central on Wednesday, October 28, with the Rays trying to do what no team in their position has ever done and force the series back to Milwaukee. Jacob Misiorowski, the hard-throwing ace who started Game 1 and opened that game with a 103.5 mile-per-hour fastball, the fastest pitch in World Series history, is the likely starter for Milwaukee, and the Brewers will be counting on him to steady a team that is coming off its most painful loss of the season.
A win on Wednesday ends the series and gives Milwaukee its first title. A loss sends the series back to American Family Field for Game 6 on Friday night, October 30, and a Game 7, if necessary, on Saturday, October 31. The Brewers would welcome the return home, where they won the first two games of the series, but they would rather not need the trip. The Rays know that every game from here on is an elimination game, and they have won one game. They need three more, and two of them would have to come on the road.
The broader picture still favors Milwaukee, and it is worth remembering how the Brewers got here. They won Game 1 by 3-2 on Friday night at home, surviving a ninth-inning scare to take the opener. They won Game 2 by 5-4 on Saturday night, surviving another late push to take a two-games-to-none lead. They won Game 3 by 10-1 on Monday night in St. Petersburg, scoring eight runs with two outs in the fifth inning, the first time any team had ever done that in a World Series, behind a brilliant six shutout innings from Robert Gasser. They have outplayed Tampa Bay in almost every phase of the series, and one bad half-inning does not erase that. But it does give the Rays something they did not have on Monday night, which is hope.
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel