Rays Rally in the 12th to Stave Off Sweep and Force a Game 5
Seven Lights
The Tampa Bay Rays rallied twice in the 12th inning Tuesday night to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 at Tropicana Field, staving off a World Series sweep and forcing a Game 5 with the Brewers still one win from their first championship.
Jonny DeLuca and pinch-hitter Ben Williamson singled home runs in the rally. Cooper Pratt had given Milwaukee a 3-2 lead on a tiebreaking home run in the top of the 12th, his fourth hit of the game. The Rays answered against reliever Antonio Senzatela when third baseman Joey Ortiz threw an error on Junior Caminero’s leadoff grounder. Liam Hicks singled off Shane Drohan, relieving for the first time since Oct. 15, and DeLuca’s single to center drove in pinch-runner Cedric Mullins to tie the score at 3. Chandler Simpson’s single loaded the bases against a five-man infield. Williamson, 1 for 15 in the postseason coming in, hit a chopper over first baseman Jake Bauers into right field to end the game. “It just shows the resiliency of this group,” Williamson said.
The series now shifts back to Tuesday’s site: Game 5 is Wednesday night at Tropicana Field, with Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski, the leading candidate for the National League Cy Young Award, scheduled to start. The Brewers lead three games to one in the best-of-seven. No team has overcome a 3-0 deficit in the World Series; Tampa Bay has avoided that fate.
Milwaukee, the NL Central champion, leads the series after wins of 3-2, 5-4 and 10-1 in the first three games. Tampa Bay, the AL East champion, became just the fifth of 26 teams to fall behind 3-0 in the World Series and win Game 4; the previous four lost Game 5. Of 43 teams to trail 3-0 in any best-of-seven postseason series, only the 2004 Boston Red Sox came back, against the New York Yankees.
Both clubs seek their first championship. The Rays’ bullpen, worked hard across four games, faces the central question again Wednesday: whether it can hold for the rest of the week.
For Tampa Bay, the 12th inning supplied what Sports Illustrated called “a pulse” — a rally that changed the tenor of the series. For Milwaukee, the loss denied a chance to close out the title on the road but left the same arithmetic: one win in the remaining games, in Game 5 or at home in a possible Game 6 or 7, secures the franchise’s first championship.