Kembali
The Tampa Bay Rays gave the Milwaukee Brewers a dose of their own medicine in Game 4 to avoid getting swept Tuesday night (and Wednesday morning) in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The Rays extended their season at least one more day thanks to a walk-off single from Ben Williamson to win the game, 4-3, in 12 innings.
The Rays jumped out to an early lead with an RBI double from Chandler Simpson to get the scoring started in the second inning.
But just as they have all season, the Brewers always seemed to have an answer. Milwaukee leveled the game at 1-1 in the top of the fourth inning on a Cooper Pratt double.
The Rays immediately reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the fourth thanks to a throwing error from Brewers third baseman David Hamilton, who immediately atoned with a game-tying home run in the fifth inning to knot the game at 2-2.
The game would grind on tied 2-2 into the late innings, and eventually into extra innings. As each team exhausted their bullpen and bench, it became a question of which team was going to blink first.
Tuesday turned into Wednesday as the game reached a climactic 12th inning. Pratt struck again for Milwaukee with a towering home run into the left field seats off Tampa Bay reliever Ian Seymour that had the Brewers sitting on the brink of their first championship in franchise history.
But the Rays channeled their inner Brewer in the bottom of the 12th inning. That meant small ball and a lot of traffic on the base paths.
Junior Caminero led off the inning with a bouncer to third base and reached safely on a throwing error by Rays replacement third baseman Joey Ortiz. Liam Hicks followed that with a soft chopper that found its way into left field and moved Caminero to third base.
Next up, Jonny DeLuca hit a seeing-eye grounder back up the middle and through to center field to drive in pinch-runner Cedric Mullins. After failing to get a sacrifice bunt down, Simpson lined a single into center field to load the bases with no one out.
Ben Williamson then stepped to the plate a hit a high chopper over the first baseman’s head and into right field to score pinch-runner Nick Fortes with the game-winning run.
The late game heroics make for a Game 5 on Wednesday where the Rays will once again try to cobble together a win, having used their scheduled Game 5 starter Nick Martinez in relief on Tuesday.
The Brewers will send presumptive National League Cy Young Award winner Jacob Misiorowski to the mound to try to clinch their first-ever World Series title.