The Tampa Bay Rays were three outs from watching the Milwaukee Brewers celebrate a championship on their own field. Instead, they staged one of the wildest comebacks in World Series history, beating Milwaukee 4-3 in 12 innings on Tuesday night at Tropicana Field to keep their season alive.
Pinch hitter Ben Williamson delivered the walk-off single in the bottom of the 12th, capping a rally that began with an error and ended with the Rays pouring out of the dugout while the Brewers stood stunned.
Cooper Pratt's homer, then the collapse
Rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt had put Milwaukee on the brink of its first World Series title, leading off the top of the 12th with a solo home run off Ian Seymour that gave the Brewers a 3-2 lead. Pratt finished with four hits on the night, including an RBI double in the fourth inning.
The Brewers were a half-inning away from the franchise's first championship — no Milwaukee team has won a World Series since the Braves in 1957, and this franchise had never won one.
Then the bottom of the 12th unraveled. Junior Caminero reached on a throwing error by third baseman Joey Ortiz, who bounced the throw past first baseman Jake Bauers. Liam Hicks singled to left off reliever Shane Drohan, sending pinch runner Cedric Mullins to third. Jonny DeLuca singled up the middle to tie the game 3-3, Chandler Simpson singled to load the bases, and Williamson bounced a single into right field to score pinch runner Nick Fortes and end it.
"There's no excuse," Ortiz said afterward. "Not one at all. I should make that play every time."
Drohan allowed one run on four hits without retiring a batter and took the loss. Seymour (2-0) earned the win despite giving up Pratt's homer.
A game of missed chances
Tampa Bay opened the scoring in the second inning, when DeLuca reached on a fielder's choice and hustled home on Simpson's RBI double into the right field corner. David Hamilton tied it 2-2 with a solo homer leading off the fifth, atoning for an earlier miscue.
Simpson also made a leaping catch at the wall in the ninth to keep the game tied. Jackson Chourio recorded two hits for Milwaukee, giving him 10 hits in the first four games of a World Series — a feat previously accomplished only by Babe Ruth in 1928.
Caminero left the game limping after bursting from first to third on Hicks' single in the 12th, visibly in pain as he slid into third. Rays manager Kevin Cash said of his star third baseman: "He'll play tomorrow with one leg. I'll make sure of it."
What comes next
The Brewers still lead the best-of-seven series 3-1, but the Rays are alive. Game 5 is Wednesday night at 8:08 p.m. ET at Tropicana Field, televised on FOX.
No team has ever come back from a 0-3 deficit in a World Series, and the last sweep came in 2012, when the San Francisco Giants swept the Detroit Tigers. The Brewers will try to regroup after a loss that, in the words of first baseman Jake Bauers, they must now treat like any other: "We said we were going to keep going until there were no more games left, right? So there's still games left. So we'll keep going."
And once the World Series ends, baseball faces another deadline: the current collective bargaining agreement expires December 1, and an owner-imposed lockout is expected to freeze the sport's offseason, with a salary-cap fight looming between owners and the players' union.