The Rays kept their season alive with a walk-off win in Game 4 of the World Series, but the conversation afterward quickly turned from the scoreboard to a question Taylor Walls clearly didn’t appreciate.
Tampa Bay was on the brink of elimination when it beat the Milwaukee Brewers, and that result only sharpened the expectation that Milwaukee would still win the World Series. That backdrop led MLB insider Ken Rosenthal to ask Walls a pointed question: Was it important to win one just to show you’re on this level?
Walls didn’t hide his reaction. He laughed, then pushed back hard.
"No. I don't know.
I think that's pretty disrespectful, honestly," Walls said in response to Rosenthal's question. "We're a team that's capable of winning four.
No team wants to get swept, but at the end of the day, we think that we can win the whole thing."
It was a fair question only in the sense that the Rays had just salvaged a game in a series they were trailing. But from Tampa Bay’s side, the idea of treating Game 4 as some kind of moral victory clearly missed the point. The only thing that matters now is Game 5, then Game 6 if necessary, and whatever comes after that.
The Rays know exactly what they’re dealing with in Milwaukee. This is not some revelation after four games.
Outside of the meltdown in Game 3, the series has been tight, with the other contests played as one-run games. Tampa Bay also showed signs of cleaning up its mistakes in Game 4, which only made the win feel more like a step forward than a consolation prize.
There’s no reason for the Rays to mentally check out now. They’ve got every reason to keep pushing and stretch this thing as long as they can. And if there’s one simple argument for why, it’s the only one that really matters: they can still win the World Series.
It ain't over until it's over.
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Rays Kept Their Season Alive But Game 5 Just Got Tougher
The Rays kept their season alive with a 12-inning win in Game 4, trimming Milwaukees series lead to 3-1 and buying themselves at least one more chance to keep this thing going. Nick Martinez was a big part of the rescue effort, giving Tampa Bay two scoreless innings on the kind of short turnaround teams usually try to avoid, while the bullpen handled the rest of the heavy lifting in a game that demanded just about every available arm.
Kevin Cash made it clear afterward that the victory came with a price, because getting through an extra-inning playoff game meant leaning hard on pitchers the club may need again immediately. Game 5 now shifts from a simple elimination test to a planning exercise for Tampa Bay, with the staff having to sort through who can still answer the call and how far the Rays can push the group that just helped them survive. [Read more 🡒]
Rays World Series Pregame Took A Weird Turn Before Game 4
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Ortiz said he was not claustrophobic, but the situation still rattled him enough to become a topic on the set. For a national broadcast built around the matchup on the field, the unexpected delay gave the production a little extra drama of its own and added one more strange note to a night already carrying World Series pressure. [Read more 🡒]
Rays Keep World Series Hopes Alive After Wild Extra-Inning Escape
The Rays were staring at the end of their season in Game 4 against the Brewers, and instead got the kind of chaotic night that can swing an entire World Series. With multiple lead changes and big relief innings from Nick Martinez and Bryan Baker, Tampa Bay kept itself close long enough for the game to spill into extra innings, where every pitch felt season-defining.
Ben Williamson eventually supplied the finish, lining the walk-off hit that sent the Rays home with a win and pushed the series to a Game 5. For a club that needed every out just to survive, the victory was equal parts bullpen grit and late-game nerve, the kind of escape that can change the mood of a series in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]