The Brewers dug themselves into a hole right away in Game 2 of the World Series, then spent the rest of the night doing what they’ve done all October: punching back until the game belonged to them.
Milwaukee fell behind 4-0 in the top of the first after a throwing error by rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt and a two-run homer from Rays catcher Liam Hicks off Logan Henderson. But the response came immediately in the bottom half against Tampa Bay ace Drew Rasmussen.
Jackson Chourio and Jake Bauers opened with back-to-back singles, Christian Yelich struck out, and then William Contreras put together a hit-and-run RBI single through the right side to get the Brewers on the board and move Chourio to third. Garrett Mitchell followed two batters later with an RBI single to center, trimming the Rays’ lead to two.
That first inning, Pat Murphy said, changed the feel of the night.
"That first inning meant something, that we bounced back against a pitcher that good. That guy, he's as good as there is out there."
The Brewers kept grinding after that. Henderson’s pitch count climbed, and Milwaukee still trailed by two before the middle innings started tilting their way. In the fourth, Pratt drew a one-out, seven-pitch walk, then later scored on a fielding error by Rays first baseman Jonathan Aranda to cut the deficit to one.
Then came the swing that evened things up. In the sixth, with left-hander Ian Seymour on the mound, Sal Frelick worked a ninth pitch deep into the at-bat and launched it to dead center, tying the game at four. Frelick described the sequence this way: "[I] was able to spoil a few of those and was just really hoping, because I had seen the sinker earlier, that he would maybe leave one over the plate, and he did."
The go-ahead run arrived in the seventh, and Pratt made sure his night ended on a far better note than it began. Against Kevin Kelly, he slapped a sinker into shallow right field for an RBI single, putting Milwaukee ahead for good.
Afterward, Pratt summed up the moment plainly: "I need to be better defensively, but it's always awesome when you have an opportunity to redeem yourself and make up for it. Probably wasn't the best swing, but it did the job and gave us the opportunity to score a run.
I'm not going to complain about it."
Those were the big moments. But the backbone of the comeback was the bullpen, and that’s where Milwaukee really won the night.
After Henderson exited following three innings, the Brewers’ relievers covered the final six frames and gave up just three hits with no runs allowed. JoJo Romero handled the fourth, Dustin May worked a clean fifth, DL Hall kept rolling with a scoreless sixth, and Abner Uribe took over for the seventh and got through four outs while facing the top of the Rays’ order. Aaron Ashby then finished it off, getting the final five outs.
The historic context only sharpened the achievement. According to MLB.com statistician Sarah Langs, Milwaukee became just the fifth team in MLB history to record two comeback wins of at least four runs in a single postseason. The Brewers had already erased a four-run deficit in their Game 4 NLCS win over the Dodgers, and now they’ve done it again on the World Series stage.
Langs also noted that Ashby became the first pitcher in postseason history to record at least five outs in six straight appearances without allowing a run.
Milwaukee’s Game 2 win will be remembered for Frelick’s homer and Pratt’s redemption swing, but the relievers made those hits matter. The Brewers are deep into October now, and their bullpen keeps turning every early mess into a chance to finish the job.
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