MILWAUKEE (AP) — Four-run deficits don’t deter the Milwaukee Brewers in October, not with these orange Life Savers.
Sal Frelick and Cooper Pratt, two of the unsung Brewers managers Pat Murphy thinks of with his lesser-loved candy nickname, combined for a sweet return to the World Series.
Frelick evened the score with his first home run in three months, Pratt hit a seventh-inning single to make up for his earlier error and the Brewers stunned the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 Saturday night for a 2-0 World Series lead.
“I think I’m in that orange Life Saver category,” Frelick said, turning to Pratt. “Really? Maybe you’re a red.”
Trailing 4-0 in the first inning, Milwaukee rallied for its seventh comeback victory among nine playoff victories. The Brewers too bounced back from a 4-0 deficit to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4 in Game 4 of the NL Championship Series, completing a four-game sweep.
Milwaukee has won seven straight games and became the fifth team to overcome two four-point deficits for victories in a single playoff series, the first since Philadelphia in 2022.
“They believe and they don’t give up,” Murphy said. “They just keep going.”
Tampa Bay first baseman Jonathan Aranda made an error and misplayed a free throw, left fielder Chandler Simpson dropped a flyball and slow-footed catcher Liam Hicks was thrown out at the plate by Brewers left fielder Jackson Chourio.
“We had moments like that throughout the regular season and we were able to turn the page,” Aranda said. “So we just have to do this here.”
Abner Uribe pitched 1 1/3 innings of no-hitters for the win, and the game ended when Aaron Ashby struck out Yandy Díaz on a catchstranding Jonny DeLuca at third after a leadoff double in the ninth.
Game 3 of the matchup between the teams seeking their first title will take place Monday night at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Of the previous 57 teams that took a 2-0 lead in the World Series, 46 won the championship.
“We got beat in every phase of the game,” DeLuca said. “We love playing at the Trop. It’s a unique venue.”
After lose Friday’s opening match 3-2the Rays took the lead in the first against rookie Logan Henderson.
Pratt committed his fourth error of the postseason at shortstop, the Brewers’ ninth in 10 games, bouncing his throw past first baseman Jake Bauers on Díaz’s first base. Simpson and Junior Caminero followed with RBI singles, and Liam Hicks hit a two-run homer.
Milwaukee started to recover with two points in the bottom half Rays ace Drew Rasmussen.
Chourio and Bauers led off with singles and Aranda allowed Contreras’ foul pop to bounce out of his glove near the net in front of the seats.
As Bauers ran on a full pitch, Contreras bounced an RBI single to the left of second baseman Richie Palacios, who had taken a step toward the bag.
“It’s a huge fight,” Murphy said. “That first inning meant something that we bounced back against such a good pitcher.”
Garrett Mitchell’s two-out single cut the deficit to 4-2 in the highest-scoring first inning of the Series since Game 4 of 1993. Hamilton hit an RBI grounder in the fourth that bounced under Aranda’s legs for an error.
Frelick capped a nine-pitch at-bat against Ian Seymour in the sixth by sending a fastball over the center field fence. The 5-foot-9 No. 8 hitter covered the bases in 18.72 seconds, half the time of some theatrical trots in the playoffs.
“I don’t think he knew what it was like to hit a dead-center home run, so I don’t think he knew if he hit it or not,” Bauers said.
Frelick had gone 103 plate appearances without a home run since his July 11 workout against Braxton Ashcraft of Pittsburgh and had not faced a left-handed pitcher since Opening Day against Tyler Gilbert of the Chicago White Sox.
“He’s got the ‘factor,'” Murphy said before the game. “You think of Joe Montana. You think about people who have – Larry Bird – who have the “it” factor. I’m not saying he has that level of talent or that he’s been able to do those things, but he has that “that factor.” He can take a team on the field.
Caminero responded by yelling at his teammates in the Tampa Bay dugout.
“I’m just trying to create some energy and give us some life back,” he said through a translator.
One of the 12-year-old Wisconsin reporters working on the series pointed out to Frelick that his home run had caused Bernie Brewer, Milwaukee’s mascot, to slide down his 75-foot slide over the left-field fence for the first time in World Series history.
“It’s really cool,” Frelick said. “I’ve only taken it down four times this year.”
Screaming fans in the crowd of 43,245 at Milwaukee’s first World Series since 1982 were fired up during the seventh inning, dancing to the “Beer Barrel Polka” played by Mike Schneider, an accordionist from Clinton, Wisconsin.
“It’s chaos and I’ve never experienced anything like this before,” Frelick said. “It was motivating for all the players.”
Brice Turang doubled against losing pitcher Tyler Wells on the second pitch from the bottom half, advanced on Mitchell’s deep flyout to right and scored when Pratt looped a 2-2 sinker from Kevin Kelly into short right field.
“My heart was pounding,” Pratt said. “You saw me chasing the 1-1 pitch into the other batter’s box.”
A 22-year-old who made his debut in June, Pratt has had a learning season. Murphy removed him from an August 25 game against the New York Mets when he didn’t run hard on a bloop single.
Pratt was thinking about this while talking to Frelick.
“I sat next to this guy and he said, ‘Hey, man, I’ve been there, done that. I have been removed several times. Don’t let this happen again. There are standards here,” Pratt said.
To be continued
Rays RHP Freddy Peralta, a two-time All-Star while pitching for the Brewers from 2018-25, starts Game 3. He was the AL Championship Series MVP and is 2-0 with a 1.08 ERA in three postseason starts and one relief appearance. He will face Brewers LHP Robert Gasser, who allowed one run in nine innings in his first two postseason starts.
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