Brewers erase four-run deficit, take 2–0 World Series lead

MILWAUKEE — Tampa Bay scored four runs before Milwaukee took its first turn at bat Saturday. The Brewers did not allow another run, then gradually removed the deficit to win World Series Game 2, 5–4, at American Family Field.

Sal Frelick tied the game with a sixth-inning home run. Cooper Pratt put Milwaukee ahead with a seventh-inning single that scored Brice Turang. Aaron Ashby recorded the final five outs, protecting the one-run margin and giving the Brewers a 2–0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

The championship now moves to St. Petersburg. MLB lists Game 3 for Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern, or 7 p.m. Chicago time, on FOX and its listed Spanish-language and streaming outlets. Milwaukee needs two more victories for the title; Tampa Bay needs to turn its first home game of the series into a different result.

For the Rays, Game 2 will be difficult to separate from its beginning. They got the early offense they needed, including a two-run homer from Liam Hicks. They then went eight innings without adding to it. That left every Brewers scoring chance capable of changing the game, even when the rally arrived a run at a time.

The first inning creates two different openings

Yandy Díaz reached on Pratt’s throwing error to begin the game. Chandler Simpson singled him home, and Junior Caminero followed with a run-scoring single of his own. Hicks’ homer to right-center then made it 4–0 against Milwaukee starter Logan Henderson.

That was Tampa Bay’s entire scoring line. The Rays finished with seven hits, three of them in the first inning, and could not convert their later baserunners into another run. Henderson completed three innings, allowing four runs, three earned, with four strikeouts and one walk.

Milwaukee answered immediately. William Contreras singled home Jackson Chourio in the bottom of the first, and Garrett Mitchell’s single brought in Jake Bauers. Instead of carrying the full four-run advantage into the second, Tampa Bay led 4–2.

Those two runs changed the shape of the comeback. Milwaukee did not need one huge inning to recover. It could pressure the Rays with individual opportunities while its pitchers kept the score fixed on the other side. The Brewers ultimately scored in four separate innings, none bigger than the two-run first.

A mistake, a homer and a decisive single

The next Milwaukee run came in the fourth, when David Hamilton reached on a fielding error by first baseman Jonathan Aranda. Pratt scored on the play, bringing the Brewers within 4–3.

In the sixth, Frelick led off against left-hander Ian Seymour and homered to center, tying the score. That swing completed the recovery from the first-inning deficit but did not end the need for another productive plate appearance. Milwaukee still had to find a fifth run.

Pratt delivered it an inning later. With Turang in scoring position and one out, the rookie shortstop singled to right against Kevin Kelly. The hit turned a tied game into a 5–4 Milwaukee lead and gave Pratt a decisive offensive contribution after his error had helped Tampa Bay open the scoring.

The sequence illustrates how the Brewers built the win. They used an immediate response, benefited from an opponent’s mistake, added a home run and finished the scoring with a single. None of those events was sufficient alone. Together they gave Milwaukee the one-run margin its bullpen needed to protect.

Six scoreless innings in relief

Henderson’s three innings left Milwaukee needing six more from its bullpen. JoJo Romero, Dustin May and DL Hall each supplied a scoreless inning. Abner Uribe followed with four outs, and Ashby handled the final five. The five relievers combined to allow four hits without a run.

Uribe received the victory. Ashby earned the save, striking out three without walking a batter in his 1⅔ innings. His outing was not free of pressure: Jonny DeLuca doubled to lead off the ninth, immediately putting the tying run in scoring position.

Ashby retired the next three hitters. The final out came when Díaz was ruled to have swung at a two-strike pitch on a checked swing. Tampa Bay’s best late opportunity ended with DeLuca still unable to cross the plate.

Milwaukee finished with 11 hits to Tampa Bay’s seven. The Brewers also left 12 runners on base, a reminder that their offense had opportunities beyond the five runs it scored. The Rays left six. Each team was charged with one error, and both errors appeared in scoring sequences.

Tampa Bay starter Drew Rasmussen worked 3⅔ innings and allowed three runs on six hits, with four strikeouts and two walks. Milwaukee forced an early move into the Rays’ relief staff and eventually scored against both Seymour and Kelly. The comeback required production beyond the initial starter matchup.

A 2–0 lead changes the series, but it does not finish it. Milwaukee’s strongest evidence from Saturday is the combination of scoring persistence and relief pitching that made a four-run opening deficit survivable. Tampa Bay’s immediate challenge is equally concrete: preserve an early advantage by adding to it, and prevent the Brewers from turning a string of isolated chances into another completed comeback.