For the second night in a row, the Milwaukee Brewers left the Tampa Bay Rays stranded at third base in the ninth inning. And for the second night in a row, Milwaukee won.
Rookie Cooper Pratt singled in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning, completing a comeback from a 4-0 first-inning deficit, as the Brewers beat the Rays 5-4 on Saturday night to take a 2-0 lead in the World Series.
The Brewers, who trailed 4-0 before they had even recorded their composure, took their first lead of Game 2 in the seventh. Brice Turang doubled to open the inning off Tyler Wells, advanced on a flyout, and Pratt greeted Kevin Kelly with an RBI single to right field to put Milwaukee up 5-4.
A disastrous first inning — for both teams
Tampa Bay struck immediately. Chandler Simpson and Junior Caminero hit RBI singles, and Liam Hicks launched a two-run homer as the Rays scored four times in the top of the first off Brewers starter Logan Henderson.
But the lead did not last. Milwaukee answered with two runs in the bottom of the first, on RBI singles by William Contreras and Garrett Mitchell, and the Rays’ defense began to wobble. An error by first baseman Jonathan Aranda — allowing a foul pop to bounce out of his mitt — extended the inning, and another Aranda error in the fourth let Pratt score to pull Milwaukee within 4-3.
Henderson lasted only three innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on three hits. What followed was a bullpen masterclass: JoJo Romero, Dustin May and DL Hall each threw a scoreless inning, Abner Uribe got four outs for the win, and Aaron Ashby finished for his third save of the postseason. Ashby has now thrown 15 2/3 scoreless innings across eight postseason appearances.
Frelick’s swing changes the game
Milwaukee tied the game in the sixth when Sal Frelick, who hit just four home runs in 339 at-bats during the regular season, lined a 3-2 fastball 408 feet to center field for his first career postseason homer. It was Milwaukee’s first home run of the Fall Classic, and it tied the game 4-4.
An inning later, Pratt — who had earlier committed his fourth error of the postseason at shortstop, a throw that sailed past first base and helped start Tampa Bay’s first-inning rally — atoned with the biggest hit of his young career.
Pratt turned a night that began with an error into a game-winning hit.
Another ninth-inning escape
The drama was not over. Jonny DeLuca doubled to open the ninth off Ashby and advanced to third on a groundout, putting the tying run 90 feet away for the second consecutive game. Victor Mesa Jr. struck out, and then Yandy Diaz struck out swinging on a 3-2 count — on a controversial check swing.
First base umpire James Hoye ruled that Diaz had gone around on the swing, overruling the initial view of home plate umpire Jim Wolf after an appeal from Brewers catcher William Contreras. The strikeout ended the game.
“In the moment, yeah, I disagreed. But the umpire said it was a swing and it is what it is,” Diaz said after the game. “Ultimately, we lost.”
The rulebook lacks a rigid, black-and-white definition of a check swing, which is why the call will be debated — but the result stands: Milwaukee 5, Tampa Bay 4.
What comes next
Game 3 of the best-of-seven series is Monday in St. Petersburg, Florida, at 8 p.m. ET. The Rays will send Freddy Peralta — a two-time All-Star who pitched for the Brewers from 2018 to 2025 and was the American League Championship Series MVP — against Brewers left-hander Robert Gasser.
History is not on Tampa Bay’s side. Only 10 teams have overcome a 2-0 deficit to win the World Series, the last being the New York Yankees in 1996. But the Rays have now lost two games in which they had the tying run at third in the ninth — and they will believe, with some justification, that they are closer than the series score suggests.
Sources: Reuters, USA Today, MLB box score.
One thought on “Brewers Storm Back From 4-0 Down to Beat Rays 5-4 and Take a 2-0 World Series Lead”