Milwaukee was one inning away from its first championship ever on Tuesday night, and for a few minutes it looked like the party was about to start. Then Tampa Bay found one more punch. The Rays beat the Brewers 4–3 in 12 innings at Tropicana Field, avoided a sweep and pushed the World Series to a Game 5.
The early part was a grind. Chandler Simpson doubled in the second, and Jonny DeLuca came all the way around from first to give Tampa Bay the lead, but the game remained deadlocked when it went to extras. In the top of the 12th, rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt, 22 years old, launched a solo homer that seemed to have settled everything. He's now the first rookie ever to hit an extra-inning home run in the World Series.
Tampa Bay was three outs from going home for the winter. Facing Shane Drohan with two runners on, DeLuca lined a single to tie it. Simpson singled to load the bases. Then pinch-hitter Ben Williamson, who'd been 1-for-15 all postseason, rolled a ball into right field, and pinch-runner Nick Fortes raced home. The 40,514 fans in the building lost it. "We continue to fight," Williamson said afterwards.
The win also snapped Milwaukee's eight-game playoff win streak. Still, history isn't kind to the Rays here. They're only the fifth team out of 26 to win Game 4 after falling behind 3–0 in a World Series, and the other four all lost Game 5. In any best-of-seven postseason series, only the 2004 Red Sox have ever come back from 0–3.
Game 5 is Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on FOX, with Jacob Misiorowski starting for Milwaukee. Is this just a stay of execution, or are we watching the start of something crazy?
