The Tampa Bay Rays refused to go quietly. Down to their final outs and facing a sweep, they staged a stunning 12th-inning rally to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 in Game 4 of the World Series on Tuesday night at Tropicana Field, forcing a Game 5.
Tampa Bay Rays (Credits: ESPN)
Milwaukee looked set to celebrate its first World Series title when rookie Cooper Pratt launched a tiebreaking home run off Ian Seymour in the top of the 12th, putting the Brewers ahead 3-2. Pratt capped a four-hit night with the blast, and the Brewers were three outs from a sweep.
Rays Steal World Series Game 4 in 12th-Inning Rally
The bottom of the 12th turned the game on its head. Junior Caminero reached on a throwing error by Brewers third baseman Joey Ortiz to open the inning, and Liam Hicks followed with a single that put runners on the corners. Jonny DeLuca then singled up the middle to score pinch-runner Cedric Mullins and tie the game at 3-3.
Chandler Simpson — who had already delivered an RBI double in the second inning and a leaping catch at the wall in the ninth — singled again to load the bases. That set the stage for pinch-hitter Ben Williamson, who had been just 1 for 15 in the postseason. Williamson bounced a single into right field, scoring pinch-runner Nick Fortes and sending Tropicana Field into delirium.
It was the first walk-off win for a team facing elimination in the World Series since David Freese’s famous Game 6 heroics for the Cardinals in 2011, and the first walk-off win while facing a sweep since the 1910 Chicago Cubs.
What Game 4 Means for the World Series
The Brewers still lead the best-of-seven series 3-1, and Game 5 is set for Wednesday night in St. Petersburg. A Rays win would send the series back to Milwaukee, but history is brutally against them: Tampa Bay became just the fifth of 26 teams to trail 3-0 in the World Series and win Game 4, and the previous four all lost Game 5.
Across all best-of-seven postseason series, only the 2004 Boston Red Sox — against the New York Yankees in the AL Championship Series — have ever come back from 3-0 down to win. No team has ever done it in the World Series itself.
For one night, though, none of that mattered. The Rays, also chasing their first championship, kept their season alive in the most dramatic way possible — and denied Milwaukee a coronation at the last possible moment.
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Source: ESPN — read the full story there.
