Brewers rout Rays 10-1 in Game 3: one win from first title
Web StoryWatch this story in 15 seconds →Key takeaways
- Milwaukee beat Tampa Bay 10-1 in World Series Game 3 on October 26.
- The Brewers scored eight runs in the fifth inning, all with two outs.
- Milwaukee leads the series 3-0 and needs one more win for the title.
The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 10-1 in Game 3. The game took place on Monday, October 26, at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. The win gave Milwaukee a 3-0 lead in the World Series.
The World Series is the final round of the baseball season. It is a best-of-seven series. The first team to win four games takes the title.
Milwaukee now needs just one more win. No team has ever lost a World Series after leading 3-0. That is why fans are searching for this game today.
What happened
The game stayed close for four innings. Milwaukee scored first in the third inning. Christian Yelich and William Contreras hit back-to-back RBI singles.
RBI means a run batted in. It means the hit brought a runner home to score.
Tampa Bay could not answer. The Rays got just one hit in the first six innings. That hit was a single by Yandy Diaz in the first inning.
Then came the fifth inning. It changed the whole game. Milwaukee scored eight runs in that one inning.
All eight runs came with two outs.
Two outs means two batters had already been put out. Teams often escape such innings with no more damage. Milwaukee did the opposite.
The Brewers kept hitting, one batter after another.
The record fifth inning
No team had ever scored eight runs with two outs in a World Series inning. The Elias Sports Bureau keeps such records. It confirmed this was a first.
Seven Brewers in a row got hits in that stretch. That was also a first in any playoff game, according to OptaSTATS. OptaSTATS tracks sports numbers.
The rally started with a replay review. Contreras hit a grounder in the fifth inning. The Rays first ruled it the third out of the inning.
Milwaukee challenged the call. The replay review overturned it. That kept the inning alive.
Brice Turang then broke the game open. He worked the count to 2-2 against left-hander Cam Booser. The count means two balls and two strikes.
Turang hit a two-run single. That gave Milwaukee the lead for good.
Chourio added two hits in the fifth inning alone. His RBI double capped the eight-run rally. By the end of the inning, Milwaukee led 10-0.
The Brewers did all of this without a home run in the inning. A home run is when the ball leaves the field in fair play. Milwaukee won this game with steady hits, not big swings.
The stars of Game 3
Jackson Chourio led the Milwaukee attack. He went 4-for-5 in the game. That means he got four hits in five at-bats.
He also hit a double and stole a base. He scored two runs.
Chourio led off the game with a single. That set the tone, even though Milwaukee did not score in the first inning. His manager, Pat Murphy, praised him after the game.
Murphy said Chourio was locked in at the plate.
Turang finished 3-for-5 with two RBIs. Contreras also had three hits. Milwaukee finished with 16 hits in total.
Tampa Bay had just three hits all game.
On the mound, rookie Robert Gasser was superb. The mound is where the pitcher throws from. Gasser threw 75 pitches in six innings.
He gave up just one hit. He walked one batter and struck out three.
Gasser faced 18 Rays batters in those six innings. That is the minimum number possible. Three Rays reached base against him, but none stayed there.
Diaz was forced out at second base. Chandler Simpson was caught stealing a base. Victor Mesa Jr.
was erased on a double play.
A double play means two outs on one play. Gasser now has a 0.60 ERA in the playoffs over three starts. ERA means earned run average.
It shows how many runs a pitcher gives up per nine innings. A lower number is better.
Brandon Woodruff pitched the ninth inning for Milwaukee. It was his first game since July. He gave up the Rays' only run.
Cedric Mullins singled in the ninth. Diaz then doubled him home.
A rough night for Tampa Bay
Freddy Peralta started the game for Tampa Bay. Peralta used to pitch for Milwaukee. He was the most valuable player of the American League Championship Series.
That series decides the American League champion.
Peralta could not get out of the fifth inning against his old team. He gave up five runs on seven hits. He walked three batters.
He left the game with the bases loaded. All three of those runners later scored.
Booser then faced four batters. All four got hits. Booser did not get a single out.
Cole Sulser followed him and gave up four hits in one and one-third innings.
The Rays offense never got going. After Diaz's first-inning single, Tampa Bay had no more hits until the ninth inning. Three hits and one run is not enough to win a World Series game.
The crowd at Tropicana Field was 40,388 fans. It was the first World Series game at the ballpark since 2008. Thousands of Brewers fans made the trip south. They sang and cheered long after the final out.
This loss put Tampa Bay in a very hard spot. Twenty-five teams have taken a 3-0 lead in a World Series before this one. Twenty-one of them finished with a sweep.
A sweep means winning all four games. The other four teams won in five games. None of the 25 lost the series.
Why it matters
This win puts Milwaukee on the edge of history. The Brewers have never won a World Series. One more win would give the team its first title.
It would also cap a long winning run. Milwaukee has now won eight playoff games in a row. The team swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the last round.
That sweep sent Milwaukee to the World Series.
Tampa Bay reached this round by beating Cleveland in the last round. The Rays beat the Guardians 3-1 in Game 5 of that series. That win sent Tampa Bay to the World Series.
Now the Rays must win four games in a row to take the title. No team has ever done that from 3-0 down in a World Series.
The Game 3 result also shows how Milwaukee plays. The Brewers do not rely on one star. They pass the bat from one hitter to the next.
Each batter puts the ball in play. That pressure wears down the other team's defense.
Tampa Bay made key mistakes at key times. A throw went to the wrong base in the fifth inning. A catch was missed.
Small errors turned into a big inning. Against a team as sharp as Milwaukee, small errors cost games.
What happens next
Game 4 followed on Tuesday night at Tropicana Field. The Brewers planned to start right-hander Dustin May. May threw one scoreless inning in Game 2. A scoreless inning means the other team scored no runs.
Tampa Bay planned to start right-hander Griffin Jax. Jax moved into the starting rotation in late April. He posted a 3.53 ERA in 34 games this season, with 23 starts.
The game was set for 7:00 in the evening on FOX.
A Brewers win in Game 4 would end the series in a sweep. It would give Milwaukee its first World Series title. A Rays win would keep the series alive.
It would force at least one more game at Tropicana Field.
For Tampa Bay, the task is simple to state and hard to do. The Rays must win one game first. They cannot win four games at once.
Rays manager Kevin Cash said his team still has a seat at the table. He said the team must win the next game.
For Milwaukee, the task is to stay calm. The Brewers are one win from a title. They have played their best baseball in the biggest games.
One more win would finish the job. Fans can follow the full World Series schedule to see what comes next.
The Game 3 rout will be remembered for one inning. Eight runs with two outs is a record. It turned a close game into a rout.
It put Milwaukee one win from history.
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