With their backs up against the wall, the Tampa Bay Rays hosted the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 4 of the World Series on Tuesday night. 

The Rays entered Tuesday with their season on the line, and they were able to strike first in an elimination game. In the second inning against Dustin May, it was a couple of the outfielders and supporting cast in the lineup that got Tampa Bay on the board. 

With Jonny DeLuca on base, it was a clutch double by Chandler Simpson to knock home his running mate in the outfield and break the ice in this one. Unfortunately for the Rays, the lead didn’t last long. 

The Brewers were able to get one back in the fourth inning with a double by Cooper Pratt that scored Sal Frelick. In the bottom half of the inning, the Rays would get one back with a throwing error on the Brewers that allowed Junior Caminero to score. 

Griffin Jax took the mound in the fifth inning with the one-run lead once again, but was unable to hold it. Going against the number nine hitter, David Hamilton, Jax allowed a solo home run, which tied the game and ended his night. 

With May going three innings and Jax going four innings, this quickly turned into a matchup of the bullpens. Even though it was an elimination game, for Tampa Bay, it was still a bit of a surprise to see them deploy Nick Martinez in the sixth inning. 

Martinez would provide the Rays with an important two clean innings of work and help them get the ball to Bryan Baker with the game tied in the eighth inning. Getting the ball to Baker has been a challenge, but he is a major weapon for Tampa Bay, and he breezed through an easy eighth inning. 

While the Rays were using their bullpen to navigate the game, a lot of credit has to go to the Brewers’ unit as well. For Tampa Bay, Baker was indeed able to go two scoreless innings for them and the team was certainly happy to get one of their best players in the World Series finally.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Aaron Ashby was able to put down Jonathan Aranda, Junior Caminero, and Liam Hicks. The bullpens would continue to pitch well for each side, and this game went into extra innings.

Rays Force Game 5

Tampa Bay would get a runner into scoring position in the bottom of the 11th inning with Jorge Mateo coming off the bench and steal second. However, with two outs, Aranda flied out to right center field to end the inning.

With the Rays being unable to capitalize on their opportunity, Pratt would give the Brewers the lead in the top of the 12th inning with a solo home run off Ian Seymour. Tampa Bay would come up in the bottom of the ninth with a chance and to start things off got Caminero on base with an error on Jose Ortiz.

Folllowing Caminero getting on, Hicks would get a single and move him over to third base with no outs. DeLuca would come up and hit a single to score the pinch-runner, Cedric Mullins, and tied the game at 3-3. The Rays would continue to threaten with a Simpson base-hit to load the bases with no outs. Ben Williamson would waste no time with the walk-off winner to force a Game 5.