The Milwaukee Brewers can win the first World Series title in franchise history on Tuesday night, October 27, when they face the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 4 at Tropicana Field. Milwaukee leads the best of seven series 3-0 after a 10-1 rout in Game 3 on Monday night, and one more win completes a sweep. First pitch is set for 8 p.m. ET on FOX, with Griffin Jax starting for a Tampa Bay team that has no margin left.
This is a preview, and the shape of it is simple. The Brewers have won eight straight games this postseason, they have outplayed the Rays in every phase through three games, and their bullpen is rested for the biggest night the franchise has ever had. The Rays, the American League’s best regular season team, have scored seven runs in three games and now have to win four straight against a club that has forgotten how to lose.
How Milwaukee Got To The Brink
The first two games in Milwaukee were tight. The Brewers took the opener 3-2, then came back to win Game 2 by 5-4, with Tampa Bay hurting itself with uncharacteristic mistakes on the bases and on defence. Game 3 in St. Petersburg was something else entirely. Christian Yelich and William Contreras drove in runs in the third inning, and then the fifth inning turned the night into a rout. Milwaukee scored eight runs in that inning, all of them with two outs, on seven consecutive hits, a first in World Series history. Brice Turang’s two run single opened the barrage, and Jackson Chourio bookended the inning with two of his four hits on the night.
On the mound, rookie left hander Robert Gasser pitched one hit ball for six scoreless innings and faced the minimum 18 batters, the first World Series starter to do that since Curt Schilling in 2001 and the first left hander since Sandy Koufax in 1965. Chourio now has eight hits in three Series games and Contreras has seven, and manager Pat Murphy summed up his young star’s night in a few words.
“He was tremendous. Locked in. Gives us a big lift.”
Brandon Woodruff pitched the ninth inning of Game 3, allowing one run in his first appearance in three and a half months after a shoulder injury. Even the closing act of a 10-1 win carried good news for Milwaukee.
Jax Gets The Ball With The Season On It
Tampa Bay turns to right hander Griffin Jax, who went 8-10 with a 3.53 ERA in the regular season. His postseason has been rockier, with a 6.00 ERA across two appearances, most recently three runs allowed over four innings in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series against Cleveland. Jax has not thrown more than five innings in an outing since July, so even a strong start likely hands the game to the Rays bullpen early. Closer Bryan Baker, an All-Star this season, has not pitched in this series at all, and with the season on the line manager Kevin Cash can be expected to use him far earlier than the ninth inning if the game stays close.
The Rays need more than pitching. A lineup that produced 98 wins in the regular season, swept the New York Yankees in the Division Series and beat Cleveland in six games in the ALCS has scored seven runs in three World Series games. Junior Caminero and Yandy Diaz, the middle of that order all season, have been held quiet by Milwaukee’s starters and a bullpen that has allowed two runs in 13 innings in this series. Tampa Bay’s only run on Monday came in the ninth, long after the game was decided.
A Bullpen Game Against A Rested Pen
Milwaukee had not announced a Game 4 starter, and Murphy is expected to run a bullpen game, with Shane Drohan, Dustin May and Kyle Harrison among the options to take the ball first. That plan works because of how Game 3 unfolded. Gasser’s six innings and the eight run fifth meant the Brewers never had to touch their best relievers, so Abner Uribe, Aaron Ashby and Trevor Megill are all fresh for Tuesday. A bullpen that has given up two runs in 13 Series innings now gets to attack an elimination game in short, planned bursts, which is close to a best case scenario for a team protecting a 3-0 lead.
Chourio, for his part, made clear the Brewers are not treating Tuesday as a formality.
“We’ve been preparing for this day a lot. We have one more to lock in for tomorrow to complete the mission.”
History Says The Hole Is Real
No team has ever come back from 3-0 down to win the World Series. Of the 25 previous teams that took a 3-0 lead in the Series, 21 finished the sweep and the other four won in five games. The only comeback from 3-0 in any best of seven postseason series belongs to the 2004 Boston Red Sox, and that came in the ALCS. Tampa Bay is also chasing its first title, having lost the World Series to Philadelphia in five games in 2008 and to the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games in 2020.
Milwaukee’s wait has been longer. The franchise began as the Seattle Pilots in 1969, moved to Milwaukee in 1970, and reached the World Series once before, losing Game 7 to St. Louis in 1982. This year’s team led the majors with 103 wins, beat San Diego in four games in the Division Series and swept the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. A win on Tuesday would make the Brewers the first team to sweep both the LCS and the World Series since the 1976 Cincinnati Reds. Four outs of history at a time is the usual October language. On Tuesday night, the Brewers need 27 of them, and then the longest wait in franchise history is over.
