The Tampa Bay Rays stayed alive the hard way Tuesday night, grinding through 12 innings and beating the Milwaukee Brewers on a walk-off to force a Game 5.
It started as the kind of game an elimination team needs: early contact, a quick lead, and just enough offense to keep hope alive. In the second inning against Dustin May, Tampa Bay got on the board when Jonny DeLuca reached and Chandler Simpson followed with a clutch double that brought him in.
That edge didn’t hold for long. Milwaukee answered in the fourth on a Cooper Pratt double that scored Sal Frelick. Tampa Bay punched right back in the bottom half when a Brewers throwing error let Junior Caminero score and restore the Rays’ lead.
The back-and-forth continued in the fifth. Griffin Jax, working with a one-run cushion, couldn’t finish the frame with the lead intact. Facing No. 9 hitter David Hamilton, Jax allowed a solo homer that tied the game and sent him out of the contest.
From there, the bullpens took over. May lasted three innings and Jax covered four, turning the game into a long relief battle.
Tampa Bay made a somewhat surprising move by bringing in Nick Martinez in the sixth, but he gave the Rays two clean innings and helped bridge the gap to Bryan Baker in the eighth with the score still tied. Baker handled his inning easily, and the Rays were happy to get one of their key arms through the World Series in strong shape.
Milwaukee’s bullpen matched them nearly all the way. Aaron Ashby worked out of the ninth by putting down Jonathan Aranda, Junior Caminero and Liam Hicks, and the game kept stretching deeper into the night.
Tampa Bay had a chance in the 11th when Jorge Mateo came off the bench, stole second and moved into scoring position. But with two outs, Aranda flied out to right center field, and the Rays came up empty again.
The Brewers finally nudged in front in the top of the 12th when Pratt blasted a solo home run off Ian Seymour. That set up one last response from Tampa Bay, and this time the Rays found it.
In the bottom of the inning, Caminero reached on an error by Jose Ortiz to begin the rally. Hicks followed with a single that pushed Caminero to third with nobody out.
DeLuca then singled to bring in pinch-runner Cedric Mullins and tie it at 3-3. Simpson added another hit to load the bases with no outs, and Ben Williamson ended it quickly with the walk-off winner that sent the series to Game 5.
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Walls pushed back on the framing and made clear the Rays are thinking bigger than simply trading punches with a highly regarded opponent. Tampa Bay has plenty of respect for Milwaukee, but the message after that win was that the series is not about proving they can hang around. It is about continuing to compete with the belief they can still take the whole thing. [Read more 🡒]