MILWAUKEE — After suffering a frustrating loss in Game 1 of the World Series, the Tampa Bay Rays still looked to be in good position for Game 2 Saturday, with ace Drew Rasmussen on the mound and their top bullpen arms fully rested compared to Milwaukee’s top relievers, who had to cover four innings Friday.
That on-paper advantage was further magnified when the Rays ambushed Brewers rookie Logan Henderson in the top of the first inning Saturday. No team allowed fewer first-inning runs in the regular season than Milwaukee, which scored just 60 times in 162 first frames. But when Liam Hicks hit a misplaced Henderson cutter 411 feet to the second deck in right field, it was 4-0 Tampa Bay before Rasmussen even took the mound.
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We couldn’t imagine a better start for the team looking to even the series. But against these Milwaukee Brewers, such a start doesn’t mean much. And at the end of the evening, those four places in the premiere remained on the scoreboard as a completely unsatisfying opening act, followed by eight zeros in the remaining frames. Along the way, a barrage of uncharacteristic errors opened the door for a Brewers team still eager to keep going. The result? Yet another Milwaukee comeback and a 5-4 final that sends the series to St. Petersburg with the Rays trailing 2-0.
“They throw every (at-bat) every pitch. They fight a lot and they give up all nine innings,” Rays left fielder Chandler Simpson said afterward.
The Brewers’ counterattack came quickly after Hicks’ homer, with Rasmussen needing 29 pitches to navigate a first inning that featured four hits, including RBI singles by William Contreras and Garrett Mitchell that cut Tampa Bay’s lead to 4-2. The inning also included a Brice Turang fielder that popped off the bat at 108.5 mph — the third hardest-hit ball Rasmussen has allowed in the postseason. The combined six runs were the most in the first inning of a World Series game since 1993, suggesting a fight could be in store. Instead, offense was much harder to come by from there.
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Rasmussen responded with a 1-2-3 second, but even that frame brought some stress. Jackson Chourio fouled six pitches before going down to end the inning on the 11th offering, pushing Rasmussen’s pitch count to 49. The right-hander kept the heart of Milwaukee’s order quiet in the third, but it took another 18 pitches.
“Congratulations to them,” Rasmussen said afterward. “They put together some really good hitters and they just don’t stop competing no matter the circumstances.”
In the fourth, the bottom of the Brewers lineup increased the pressure as Rasmussen’s command began to wane. Rookie Cooper Pratt drew a walk after going down 0-2. Sal Frelick followed with a pinpoint single that left the bat at 105.4 mph — his hardest-hit ball since June 7 and a harbinger of an even bigger swing to come.
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Then the wheels really started to fall off for Tampa Bay. David Hamilton hit a ball down the right field line that sank under the glove and through the legs of first baseman Jonathan Aranda, allowing a third Milwaukee run to score. If Aranda had done it properly, he might have had time to send Pratt home. Instead, it represented only the Rays’ second mistake of the postseason and first since Game 3 of the ALDS against the Yankees.
“I felt like I was late too often to expect good results,” Rasmussen said later. “And then from there, they got into some hitters’ counts and were able to find some holes.”
Rasmussen got one more before a walk to Jake Bauers ended his night, as manager Kevin Cash called up left-hander Cam Booser to face Christian Yelich with the bases loaded. With just 3 ⅔ innings completed, Game 2 marked Rasmussen’s shortest outing since a July 9 clunker in which he allowed six runs and recorded just seven outs against the Yankees. He has gone at least five innings in each of his last 11 regular-season starts; the Rays have won each of those 11 contests.
Booser struck out Yelich to keep Tampa Bay’s lead intact. But Rasmussen’s early exit forced the Rays to find 15 more outs in a bullpen that looked increasingly shaky as the postseason wore on.
The pressure to build a bigger lead came in the form of a recklessly aggressive base run in the top of the sixth. With two outs and Hicks on second base, Victor Mesa Jr. singled past shortstop Pratt. Chourio, playing fairly shallow, recovered the ball in left field before Hicks even touched third base, but third base coach Brady Williams still waved Hicks home. Chourio’s throw to catcher Contreras beat Hicks by several steps. The inning was over and the Brewers dugout enjoyed another burst of momentum.
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The 43,245 spectators at American Family Field could feel Milwaukee’s latest comeback brewing as Ian Seymour took the mound for the bottom of the sixth. And after nine pitches to Frelick, the game was tied. Seymour attacked with alternating fastballs and four-seam sinkers until Frelick crushed a 92.9 mph four-seam over the center field wall for a stadium-shaking blast that made the score 4-4. The Brewers nearly took the lead a few batters later, when a miscommunication between Simpson and shortstop Taylor Walls spoiled Simpson’s catch attempt on what should have been a harmless flyout by Yelich.
“Just mistakes that happened that don’t usually happen,” Simpson said afterward.
Reliever Tyler Wells entered and escaped from the game with the game still tied, but when the broadcast returned from commercial, it showed Rays star Junior Caminero instigating verbal discontent in the dugout.
“I’m just trying to help the team, raise my head…just trying to create some energy,” Caminero said through interpreter Kevin Vera when asked after the game about the moment. But he confirmed it was more than just a pep talk: there was a clear message.
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“We had to withdraw,” he added. “At that point, we didn’t do our job. And against Milwaukee, if you give up the outs, they’re going to use that against you.”
Not all of the misplays came back to bite Tampa in the first two games of the series. But given how the Brewers bullpen performed in October — even when Henderson came out after just three innings, manager Pat Murphy had a bevy of quality options to turn to — wasting scoring opportunities or gifting Milwaukee’s bats extra chances is asking for trouble. Eventually, the Brewers tend to find the nod they’re looking for. In Game 2, it was thanks to Pratt, who delivered an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh to make it 5-4.
Like in Game 1, the Rays had another scoring opportunity in the final quarter of Game 2, when Jonny DeLuca led off with a double against Aaron Ashby. But Ashby made sure DeLuca finished the game stranded on the basepaths, as he retired the next three batters to finalize the Brewers’ victory.
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The series now moves to Tropicana Field, where the Rays will once again benefit from an advantageous pitching scenario, with confident and in-form veteran Freddy Peralta taking the ball for Game 3 against another Milwaukee rookie, left-hander Robert Gasser. But unless the Rays improve in all facets of the game against a Brewers club firing on all cylinders, what the game looks like on paper may not matter.
“We just have to clean up,” DeLuca said after the game. “I think the game is speeding up right now, and we just have to be able to slow it down and do some work and clean it up in all phases of the game.”
“We’re going to have to dig deep and we’re going to have to compete from here on out,” Rasmussen said. “I think we understand what lies ahead and what it will take.”
Perhaps the best thing the Rays can have right now is a short memory.
“I already forgot about the last two days,” Caminero said. “In my mind, the show now starts on Monday.”
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