The Rays are trying to dig out of a 2-0 hole tonight, and they get the comfort of home at Tropicana Field to do it. Tampa Bay was the best home team in the regular season with 55 wins, but Milwaukee has spent the year thriving away from home too, piling up 48 road wins. Only the Dodgers had more.
Milwaukee will open Game 3 with left-hander Robert Gasser, who has quietly given the Brewers a lift this postseason. He has given up one run across nine innings in his two playoff outings, and he shut down the Dodgers with five scoreless innings in Game 3 of the NLCS.
Gasser has also kept runs off the board in a big way lately, allowing one earned run or fewer in seven of his last eight appearances. The Brewers’ bullpen should be in decent shape behind him after Sunday’s off-day, and only Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby appeared in both of the first two games of this series.
Tampa Bay is countering with Freddy Peralta, a familiar name with a different uniform. Peralta has given the Rays exactly what they needed this postseason, giving up only two earned runs in 16 1/3 innings.
He had a rough stretch after being traded to the Mets, but he has bounced back in Tampa Bay and been especially tough at Tropicana Field. In four regular-season home starts, he finished with a 1.69 ERA and held hitters to a .116 average.
His work in October at the Trop has been just as sharp, with a 1.13 ERA in three playoff starts there.
The Rays may also need to adjust their lineup now that they’re facing a lefty after seeing two right-handers to start the series. Ryan Vilade and Ben Williamson are in line to replace Victor Mesa Jr. and Richie Palacios, respectively, while Kevin Cash has also turned to Nick Fortes over Liam Hicks against left-handed pitching at times. After scoring four runs in the first inning of Game 2, Tampa Bay went quiet for the next eight innings, and getting the right mix in the lineup will matter if they want to spark the offense tonight.
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Brewers World Series Demand Just Turned Tickets Into A Different Reality
The Brewers first World Series trip since 1982 has sent ticket demand into another gear, and American Family Field is feeling it in a way the club has not seen in decades. Even standing-room options for Game 1 are carrying a get-in price north of $2,300, a sign of how quickly Milwaukee fans have pushed the market into rare territory for October baseball.
Across the field, the contrast is striking. Games in St. Petersburg are still sitting at a far more manageable entry point, which only sharpens the picture of how much appetite exists for this Brewers run and how much of a premium Milwaukee is asking fans to pay for a seat in the building. The prices tell their own story before a pitch is thrown, and for Brewers supporters, the cost of being part of this moment has become part of the moment itself. [Read more 🡒]
Pat Murphys Lineup Process Says Everything About How Brewers Compete
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The bigger point is that Murphys approach is not just about convenience, it reflects who gets the final say. Milwaukees front office does its share of scouting and game-planning, but the lineup still comes down to the managers own call, day after day, which says plenty about how the Brewers want to compete and why their daily order can feel a little less formulaic than most. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Just Saw A Familiar Arm In A Moment That Mattered
Drew Rasmussen turned up in a familiar spot for Milwaukee fans on a night when the Brewers needed every edge they could get, and the Rays right-hander wound up working through a shorter outing than Tampa Bay had hoped. Rasmussen lasted three and two-thirds innings against his former club, allowing three runs on six hits with two walks and four strikeouts as the game stayed tight from start to finish.
For the Brewers, it was the kind of matchup that carried extra weight because they knew the arm on the mound and the challenge it could present. Tampa Bay still had plenty to sort out afterward, and the conversation around Rasmussens start quickly centered on how the Rays thought he handled the moment, even as Milwaukees side could take satisfaction in a one-run win that left the series in a difficult place for the visitors. [Read more 🡒]