The Tampa Bay Rays are two losses from the end of their season, and the man they will trust to save it knows the Milwaukee Brewers better than anyone in their clubhouse. Dominican right-hander Freddy Peralta takes the mound for Tampa Bay in Game 3 of the World Series on Monday night at Tropicana Field — against the team he pitched for during the first eight seasons of his major league career.
First pitch is 8 p.m. ET on FOX. Milwaukee leads the best-of-seven series 2-0, and history is brutal for teams in Tampa Bay's spot: only 11 of the 57 teams to fall behind 2-0 in the World Series have come back to win it, and nobody has done it since the 1996 New York Yankees. Teams up 2-0 have gone on to win the title 81 percent of the time.
Peralta, the ALCS MVP, against the team that traded him
Peralta has been Tampa Bay's best pitcher in October. He is 2-0 with a 1.08 ERA this postseason, and he was named MVP of the American League Championship Series after helping the Rays beat Cleveland. He is 7-0 with a 0.89 ERA over his last 10 games since August 26, and he has a 1.45 ERA in seven starts at Tropicana Field since the Rays acquired him at the trade deadline.
The Brewers traded Peralta to Tampa Bay in January, after eight seasons in Milwaukee. He will face his former team on baseball's biggest stage, in a ballpark where he has been nearly untouchable — and where the Rays have won with him on the mound all month.
"He's fresh off an ALCS MVP performance and now faces his former team," is how one preview put it. Peralta's last start came October 19 against Cleveland, when he allowed one earned run over 5 1/3 innings. Tampa Bay gave him extra rest after the ALCS, and the Rays need him to work deep into Monday's game: their bullpen has been stretched, and falling behind 3-0 would leave almost no margin at all.
Gasser, the breakout lefty, gets the ball for Milwaukee
Milwaukee counters with left-hander Robert Gasser, the breakout star of the Brewers' pitching staff this postseason. Gasser is 0-0 with a 1.00 ERA in two playoff starts, allowing one run in nine innings. He last pitched in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, throwing five scoreless innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Gasser began the season at Triple-A Nashville and finished the regular season 5-5 with a 3.87 ERA and 103 strikeouts in 109 1/3 innings. He will be the first left-handed starter the Rays have seen in this series, and manager Pat Murphy does not need him to go deep: Milwaukee's bullpen came into the series with a 1.41 postseason ERA, and in Game 2 it threw six scoreless innings after starter Logan Henderson lasted only three.
"Somebody's gotta step up. 'Gas' has been that guy," Murphy said before the NLCS. "Our pitching coaches don't get enough credit."
How the Brewers took control
Milwaukee won the opener 3-2 on Friday, with Jacob Misiorowski allowing one run over five innings and Trevor Megill striking out Jonny DeLuca with the tying run on base to end it. Game 2 on Saturday was wilder: Tampa Bay jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning, but Milwaukee chipped away — two in the first, then one run in the fourth, sixth and seventh — knocked Drew Rasmussen out in the fourth, tied it on Sal Frelick's sixth-inning homer, and won it on Cooper Pratt's RBI single in the seventh. The Rays put the tying run at third base in the ninth but could not bring him home.
The Brewers' bullpen has been the difference in the series. JoJo Romero, Dustin May, DL Hall, Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby combined for six scoreless innings on Saturday, and Tampa Bay has not scored since the first inning of Game 2.
What is at stake tonight
Neither franchise has ever won a World Series. Milwaukee's only previous appearance ended in defeat in 1982; Tampa Bay lost in 2008 and again in 2020. One of them will end a wait that has lasted generations — and the Brewers are now two wins away from ending theirs first.
Game 4 is Tuesday night at Tropicana Field, and Game 5, if necessary, is Wednesday — both in St. Petersburg — before the series returns to Milwaukee, if needed, for Games 6 and 7 on October 30 and 31.
For the Rays, the math is simple and the pressure is total. Win tonight behind their ace, and the series is alive. Lose, and they will need to win four straight — something no team has done from 3-0 down in World Series history.
Fuentes: USA Today, WFTS Tampa Bay 28, Sportsbook Review, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Associated Press.