The World Series has reached the point where every inning starts to feel like a swing game, and Monday night at Tropicana Field carries that kind of weight. The Milwaukee Brewers are up 2-0, one step from the first title in franchise history. The Tampa Bay Rays, meanwhile, are staring at a must-win Game 3 and trying to become the first club to climb out of a 2-0 hole in the World Series since the 1996 New York Yankees.
The Rays have been close enough to taste it. In both Games 1 and 2, they had the tying run on third base in the ninth inning.
One clean hit, one broken play, one lucky bounce - and the entire series looks different. Instead, Milwaukee escaped both nights, and now Tampa Bay has to beat the hottest team in baseball four times in the next five games.
Manager Kevin Cash tried to frame the move home as a reset.
"I know our fans are going to be really loud and excited to see us come back and kind of reset ourselves a little bit," Rays manager Kevin Cash said after Game 2. "We've got a really good pitcher going, as do they.
A lot of confidence in this club to respond. They've done it all season long, and they'll continue to do it."
That confidence will be tested immediately by the arm the Rays are turning to in Game 3.
Freddy Peralta gets the ball, and he has been one of Tampa Bay’s big reasons for believing this thing can still be turned. The ALCS MVP has been excellent in October, giving up just two runs in 16 ⅔ innings over three starts and one relief outing.
Since Aug. 26, Peralta has put up a 0.88 ERA in nine starts, one relief appearance, and 50 ⅔ innings.
The Rays have also credited tweaks to his delivery and pitch selection for helping him get back on track after coming over from the Mets at the trade deadline.
Cash praised the way Peralta handled the adjustment.
"I give Freddy a lot of credit for being a good pitcher and being vulnerable enough to say, 'I wasn't comfortable doing some things and I want to get back to my strengths,'" Cash said prior to the World Series. "He guided that through the entire two months he's been with us, and he took off in September and has continued to take off in October."
The Rays will need that version again, and they need innings. Their middle relief has looked shaky, which makes a shorter start more dangerous than usual.
Even so, Peralta is not the kind of pitcher who regularly gives you six or seven innings. Tampa Bay will take whatever he can provide, but the less that bullpen has to carry, the better.
Milwaukee’s relief corps brings its own questions, even after two wins. Aaron Ashby has been lights out, throwing 15 ⅔ scoreless innings this postseason in high-leverage spots, and he has gone at least five outs in seven of his eight appearances.
Abner Uribe has been just as sharp, allowing two runs in nine innings. Together, they’ve been the kind of late-game hammer that can shut a door fast.
But the workload is piling up. Uribe has logged four outs in both Game 1 and Game 2, while Ashby has done the same over the last two nights. After Saturday’s win, Pat Murphy admitted his top bullpen arms are running on fumes.
"They're not fresh, that's for sure," Murphy said after Game 2. "When you have the long layoff (after the NLCS), you think it helps their freshness, but to be honest with you, not being on the mound doesn't help him stay crisp.
Having that long layoff and not throwing much allows them to give it all they've got. Maybe they'll get crisp soon."
If the Brewers are in position to stretch their lead to 3-0, Murphy may have no choice but to keep leaning hard on Ashby and Uribe. Still, at some point, Milwaukee will need outs from someone else - whether that’s DL Hall, JoJo Romero, Antonio Senzatela, or another arm.
Then there’s Yandy Díaz, whose bat has to wake up if the Rays are going to keep this comeback alive. He opened the World Series with a sharp drive to the wall in right field, and since then he hasn’t hit the ball out of the infield. He’s 0 for 9 with three strikeouts through two games.
His ninth-inning check swing in Game 2 became another sore spot. It was ruled a swing, giving him his third strikeout in four at-bats. Cash described Díaz’s reaction this way:
"Just the emotion, wanting to come through right there in the moment," Cash said about Díaz's frustrated reaction to the check swing call. "He didn't feel like he check swung. I didn't go look at it, but from my vantage point, it did look like that he swung."
Díaz was one of Tampa Bay’s best hitters against the Cleveland Guardians, going 9 for 27 with four doubles and two homers in the six-game series. Right now, though, the Rays need that version back in a hurry. Their path to a comeback runs straight through his bat, and Game 3 is where it has to start.
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