The Milwaukee Brewers are one win from the first World Series title in franchise history. They needed one inning Monday night to get there.
Milwaukee scored eight runs with two outs in the fifth and beat the Tampa Bay Rays 10-1 in Game 3 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. No team had ever scored eight two-out runs in a World Series inning, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, and seven Brewers in a row hit safely in the inning — a first in any postseason game, according to OptaSTATS.
The Brewers lead the series 3-0. Twenty-five teams have taken that lead in a World Series. Twenty-one finished the sweep. None lost.
Chourio sets the tone, Turang breaks it open
Jackson Chourio led off the game with a single and finished 4-for-5 with a double, a stolen base and two runs. Two of his hits came in the fifth inning, bookending Milwaukee’s eight-run outburst.
“He was tremendous. Locked in. Gives us a big lift,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said about Chourio, who has eight hits in three Series games.
The fifth inning did not break open until Brice Turang worked a 2-2 count against left-hander Cam Booser and drove a two-run single. Turang finished 3-for-5 with two RBIs — and did damage with the glove, too.
Milwaukee had taken a 2-0 lead in the third, with Chourio scoring on a Christian Yelich single and William Contreras adding another run. Then came the fifth: after Freddy Peralta loaded the bases with two outs, Rays manager Kevin Cash turned to Booser, and Turang immediately singled in two more. Four straight Brewers followed with hits, and Chourio doubled in what would be his team’s final run of the game.
Peralta, the former Brewer, was charged with five runs on seven hits over 4 2/3 innings. “What I saw tonight is they were just waiting for a good pitch and just tried to hit the ball,” Peralta said afterward, describing a Milwaukee lineup that, in his words, “wasn’t trying to do too much.”
Gasser, nearly perfect
On the mound, rookie left-hander Robert Gasser was nearly untouchable. He threw 75 pitches in six innings, allowed one hit, walked one and struck out three — and faced the minimum 18 batters through six, helped by a caught stealing and a double play.
Gasser became the first starter to face the minimum 18 batters through six innings of a World Series game since Arizona’s Curt Schilling in 2001 — and the first lefty to do it since Sandy Koufax for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1965. His postseason ERA is 0.60 over three starts.
“It is really cool when you go on the road in such an intense atmosphere to have that support,” Gasser said, noting the Brewers fans who cheered from behind the visitors’ dugout. “Normally it’s 35,000 against nine, but tonight we had 20,000 people behind us.”
One win away
Tampa Bay’s only run came in the ninth, when Yandy Díaz doubled home a run off Brandon Woodruff. It was far too little, too late: by the sixth inning, Milwaukee had 18 baserunners. Tampa Bay had one.
Game 4 is Tuesday night at Tropicana Field, where the Brewers can complete the sweep — and where, as one report put it, the entire state of Wisconsin may jump on flights to watch them win their first championship. If the Rays survive, Game 5 follows Wednesday in Tampa, with Games 6 and 7, if necessary, back in Milwaukee.
Sources: Associated Press via NPR, “Brewers rout the Rays 10-1 to move within a win of their first World Series title” (Oct. 27, 2026); USA Today, “Robert Gasser, Jackson Chourio lift Brewers in rout: Winners and losers from Game 3” (Oct. 27, 2026); Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Game 3 coverage (Oct. 26–27, 2026).
