The Athletic covers live Brewers vs Rays in the fifth game of 2026 MLB World Series.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — This would be the moment, the seismic blow that had always eluded the Milwaukee Brewers. It had to be the case, right?
Decades ago, their blond-haired local shortstop had a four-hit game in the World Series; two of them, in fact. But Robin Yount never did that. He never brought the Brewers closer to glory like Cooper Pratt did Tuesday, just before midnight at Tropicana Field.
“I just hit the thing and I was like, ‘Oh my God, here it goes,'” Pratt said after Game 4 of the World Series, when his 12th-inning home run couldn’t prevent a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.
“I was just trying not to pull out. Yeah, it was probably one of the coolest swings of my life. But it’s over.”
Pratt had doubled and singled twice when he led off the 12th against Rays left-hander Ian Seymour. With the count at 2-2, he hit a 396-foot sweeper, into a thicket of Brewers fans in the left field stands. It felt like a home run. It felt like it was history.
COOPER PRATT KICKS OUT THE BREWERS! pic.twitter.com/jZejkshf9G
– MLB (@MLB) October 28, 2026
Never before has a rookie collected four hits – or homered in one inning this late – in a potential deciding game of the World Series. And this wasn’t just any rookie: Pratt, 22, is a guard, a player who signed an eight-year, $50.75 million contract (with two club options) in April, before playing in Triple-A.
This type of early investment is a Brewer specialty, one that their president of baseball operations, Matt Arnold, remembers from his time with the Rays. Six days after the start of Evan Longoria’s career in 2008, Tampa Bay signed him for nine years, options included.
Longoria became the greatest player in franchise history – Tampa Bay’s Yount, you might say – with a statue in front of the ballpark. He threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the fourth game.
“When you bet on kids, it really depends on who they are, and I really mean that,” Arnold said. “Longoria, good guy. Jackson Chourio, good guy. Luis Lara, good guy. And Cooper Pratt, same thing.”
So yes. It was perfect, victory so certain that workers began moving sofas from the visitors’ clubhouse. After Pratt ran wild around the bases, the first championship celebration in Brewers history was three outs.
None of these withdrawals ever took place. Maybe they will in Game 5; or, otherwise, in Game 6 or 7, back in Milwaukee. History says it won’t even go that far: No team that has lost the first three games of a World Series has ever forced a Game 6, and the Rays will face a rested Jacob Misiorowski on Wednesday.
“We’ve got Miz on the hump,” first baseman Jake Bauers said, “so we’re not going to be mad about that.”
Bauers had a chance to land first in the bottom of the 12th, after Junior Caminero led off with a grounder to third. Joey Ortiz lined him up behind the bag, in that corner near the edge of the infield and the foul line. His intermediate jump came off Bauer’s glove.
“I think I should have taken a few extra steps to start with,” Ortiz said. “I made a (bad) throw. There’s no excuse. Not at all. I should make that play every (damn) time.”
Junior Caminero took the lead on an error in the bottom of the 12th, and the Rays’ rally was underway. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Mistakes have preceded some of the most notorious defeats in postseason history: think José Lind for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1992, Tony Fernández for the Cleveland Indians in 1997, Mariano Rivera for the New York Yankees in 2001. If the Brewers somehow drop this World Series, Ortiz’s mistake will join the list.
That put the tying run on base and brought manager Pat Murphy to the mound to relieve veteran Antonio Senzatela, who had worked two innings in Game 3 and faced four other batters in Game 4.
“He was out of gas,” said Murphy, who then also used JoJo Romero, Abner Uribe, DL Hall, Trevor Megill and Aaron Ashby. Murphy worked hard with Ashby – his 18 scoreless innings are a record for a single postseason – and knows it.
“The velocity was down a little bit,” said Murphy, who lifted Ashby in the 11th after 2 1/3 perfect innings. “We can tell when Ashby’s ball doesn’t have the same movement and finish. So it’s about time.”
If Murphy had made a mistake, he could have used Megill for a one-hitter, strikeout that ended the eighth. (He later acknowledged that, in hindsight, he could have asked more of Megill.) So, with limited options after Senzatela — and no desire to use Misiorowski at that point — Murphy reached out to Shane Drohan, a rookie who had worked one round in a month.
Ending the World Series with Drohan on the mound would have been wonderfully bizarre, like Casey Stengel waiting until the final inning in 1951 to use left-hander Bob Kuzava, who closed out the title for the Yankees. (Stengel liked the ploy so much that he repeated it a year later.)
The matchups favored the left-handed Murphy, who did his best to force a double play from left-hander Liam Hicks. But Hicks hit a grounder past Pratt, who was shaded in the middle, and Drohan’s heart sank.
“You try to get a ground ball,” Drohan said. “Understood. It’s just a shame we got delayed. If we were just a regular D, it’s just Coop. That’s how it goes.”
With runners on the corners, Drohan faced a right-hander, Jonny DeLuca, who had fanned against Megill to end the first game with the tying run on third. This time, DeLuca drove in the runner with a bouncer that skipped over the mound and into center field.
Chandler Simpson tried to create a bunt, but couldn’t and lined a single to center instead. With the bases loaded and five Brewers crowded in the infield, pinch hitter Ben Williamson hit a first-pitch game-winning single off Bauers and into right field. Ball game.
Ben Williamson and the Rays rejoice after their walk-off win forced a Game 5. (Al Bello/Getty Images)
For Drohan, it was four batters, four singles, an infinite symbol for a World Series ERA and a loss to his name.
“Really difficult,” he said. “You know, I’m human. I knew what I was getting into. I just didn’t do the work.”
He later added: “They called me by my name for a reason, and I failed. »
With a Brewers victory in Game 5, this will all be a footnote, a final dose of angst for a accustomed franchise. They wouldn’t be the Brewers if they made it easy.
“Sometimes the game tests you; sometimes it makes you want to dig deep,” Milwaukee captain Christian Yelich said. “And it’s all part of the journey, it’s all part of the experience, and it’s all part of our story.”
The story may still be a fairy tale. It probably will. It just needs another chapter.
— Evan Drellich contributed reporting.
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