Rays beat Brewers 4-3 in 12 innings to avoid World Series sweep
Tampa Bay held off Milwaukee 4-3 in 12 innings on Tuesday to stay alive, but the Brewers still lead the World Series 3-1 and need one more win for the title.
Rays avoid the sweep with a 4-3, 12-inning win
The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 in 12 innings on Tuesday night at Tropicana Field, winning Game 4 of the World Series and avoiding a sweep. Milwaukee still leads the series 3-1 and can close out its first championship in franchise history with one more win.
Game 3 is why Tuesday carried so much weight. The Brewers blew out the Rays 10-1 on Monday to take a 3-0 series lead, and no team in World Series history has ever come back from an 0-3 hole. Tampa Bay had no room left to lose.
Griffin Jax started for Tampa Bay, and it stayed close
Rays manager Kevin Cash handed Game 4 to Griffin Jax, a move first reported by Bob Nightengale of USA Today. The 31-year-old right-hander posted a 3.53 ERA across 34 appearances, 23 of them starts, in the regular season. He came into Tuesday having made just two postseason outings, one a start, with four earned runs allowed in six innings.
Jax gave up a tying RBI double to Cooper Pratt in the fourth inning and a tying solo home run to David Hamilton in the fifth. Cash went to his bullpen once the game tightened, and Tampa Bay's relievers held the line into extra innings. Aaron Ashby was part of that group and stretched his scoreless streak in the postseason.
A tight, back-and-forth game
Tampa Bay scored first on a Chandler Simpson RBI double off Brewers starter Dustin May in the second inning. Milwaukee tied it with Pratt's double in the fourth, and the Rays went right back up when Junior Caminero scored on an error after a replay review later that same inning. Hamilton's homer off Jax in the fifth tied it again at 2-2, and the score held there until the game went to extra innings.
Simpson had a full night in center field for Tampa Bay, adding a diving catch to go with his RBI double, and getting caught in a rundown that ended a Rays inning. Brewers second baseman Brice Turang turned a double play in the sixth to help keep the game level.
Milwaukee still leads 3-1
The win keeps Tampa Bay's season going, but the math has not changed much. Milwaukee leads the World Series 3-1, and history is still stacked against the Rays. No team has ever erased a 3-0 deficit in the Fall Classic, so Tuesday bought Tampa Bay one more game, nothing more. That is the deal with a win-or-go-home night, you take it one game at a time, and the Rays did just enough to get to the next one.
Facts per MLB, Yahoo Sports, ESPN box score. Opinion is the taproom's.