Rays survive in World Series with wild walk-off comeback vs Brewers

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ST. PETERSBURG, FL — The champagne was ready for the Milwaukee Brewers.

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The plastic lining was getting unrolled.

The Brewers were all set to celebrate their first World Series championship in 57 years on Tuesday night.

Instead, the Tampa Bay Rays broke the Brewers’ hearts.

The Rays, down to their final three outs, pulled off a zany 4-3, 12-inning comeback over the Brewers to stay alive.

The Rays are still in deep trouble, trailing the Brewers 3-games-to-1 in the best-of-seven series.

But, oh, they are alive.

The Brewers, leading 3-2 after 22-year-old rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt’s homer, opened the floodgates when third baseman Joey Ortiz, known for his defense, threw Junior Caminero’s routine ground ball by first baseman Jake Bauers. Then, the bullpen, which had pitched eight consecutive scoreless innings, melted down.

Catcher Liam Hicks slapped a single to left field off reliever Shane Drohan, with pinch-runner Cedric Mullins scampering to third base. Jonny DeLuca followed with a single up the middle past a drawn-in infield, tying the game. Chandler Simpson, after trying to bunt, then slapped a single to center, loading the bases.

And pinch-hitter Ben Williamson became the hero slapping ball to right field for the game-winner, with the majority of Brewers’ fans that filled Tropicana Field groaning.

It was the fourth game in World Series history that a team staved off elimination with an extra-inning victory.

“These are the two best teams left in baseball,” Game 4 starter Griffin Jax said. “Unfortunately, we haven’t been playing the cleanest baseball for the last three games. No secret there. You can tell by the three losses we have that we’ve been giving them a lot of extra chances, and you can’t do that against the Brewers. They’ve taken advantage of everything.

“There’s no rewriting the script. No changes in who we are."

But this time, they re-wrote the script.

They now are only the fifth team in World Series history who trailed 3-0 in a Series to even force a Game 5, which will be played Wednesday night with ace Drew Rasmussen on the mound.

“Obviously, we want to play well. Everybody in this clubhouse wants to play well,” Caminero said. “I don’t even think it’s been a matter of necessarily playing bad. I think a lot of credit goes to Milwaukee. They’ve just been playing exceptionally well.

“Earlier, I told (Brewers catcher William) Contreras, you know, you have my blessing. You know, I wish you the best in this series. But now, it’s kind of like, well you’ve played a little too well. Things are what they are now. Credit to Milwaukee. Things just haven’t unfolded our way necessarily.”

Well, up until this night, ruining the Brewers’ party.

There were a horde of Brewers’ fans that into town for the game, staying everywhere from Tampa to Clearwater to Sarasota, and seen everywhere from bars to restaurants to coffee shops, certainly made their presence known. They actually drank popular Ferg’s Sports Bar and Grill, located just outside Tropicana Field, dry.

Jake Ferguson, owner of the bar, said they actually had to call in an emergency shipment of beer after selling 1,000 cases of Miller Lite and Coors Lite in one day, the normal supply for an entire month.

Now, for at least a night, they’ll be drinking in their sorrows, while the wait for a World Series title continues for at least another day.

“That's a really talented group," said Rasmussen, who was beaten in Game 2. “In all honesty, they've outperformed us in all three facets of the game.

“I think they've pitched better than us. I think they've done better offensively. And I think they've played better defense than we have. It’s a really talented group. Their decision-making is off the charts.’’

But not this night.

It belonged to the Rays, in the unforeseen way imaginable.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rays survive in World Series with wild walk-off comeback vs Brewers

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