MILWAUKEE (AP) Sal Frelick tied the score with his first home run in three months, Cooper Pratt hit a go-ahead single in the seventh inning and the Milwaukee Brewers stunned the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 on Saturday night for a 2-0 World Series lead by overcoming a four-run deficit for the second time this postseason.
Tampa Bay, which won the AL pennant in part by consistently forcing opponents into mistakes, committed one error, made two other misplays on defense and had a runner thrown out at the plate by Brewers left fielder Jackson Chourio.
Down 4-0 in the first inning, Milwaukee rallied for its seventh comeback win of this postseason. The Brewers also rebounded 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.
“As long as there’s game left, we have a chance. I think we’ve all bought into that. We’re never out of it,” Pratt said.
After losing Friday’s opener 3-2, the Rays burst ahead against rookie Logan Henderson but the Brewers started to claw back with two runs in the bottom half off Tampa Bay ace Drew Rasmussen.
David Hamilton cut the deficit to 4-3 with a run-scoring grounder in the fourth and Frelick capped a nine-pitch at-bat against Ian Seymour in the sixth by driving a fastball over the center-field fence.
Frelick had gone 103 plate appearances without a home run since his July 11 drive off Pittsburgh’s Braxton Ashcraft and had not gone deep against a lefty pitcher since opening day against Tyler Gilbert of the Chicago White Sox. Frelick sped around the bases in 18.72 seconds, half the time of some theatrical trots this postseason.
“I was just pumped to try to get back to the dugout,” the 5-foot-9 Frelick said. “I don’t hit a lot of home runs, especially to center, so I was happy it went out.”
Screaming fans at Milwaukee’s first World Series since 1982 were fired up during the seventh-inning stretch, dancing to the “Beer Barrel Polka” played by Mike Schneider, an accordionist from Clinton, Wisconsin.
Brice Turang doubled against losing pitcher Tyler Wells on the second pitch of the bottom half, advanced on Garrett Mitchell’s deep flyout to right and scored when Pratt, a 22-year-old shortstop who debuted in June, looped a sinker from Kevin Kelly into short right field.
“I feel like we’ve been down a lot early throughout the playoffs so far,” Frelick said. “Nine innings to play, and it doesn’t really change your offensive plan at all. We’re trying to go up, take a chunk of the pitcher each at-bat, pass it to the next guy and hopefully that leads to a few runs doing that.”
Abner Uribe pitched 1 1/3 hitless innings for the win.
Jonny DeLuca doubled off Aaron Ashby starting the ninth, then Victor Mesa Jr. struck out when he couldn’t check his swing. Pinch-hitter Ben Williamson’s groundout advanced the runner and Yandy Díaz struck out when he couldn’t check his swing on a full-count pitch.
Ashby has three saves in the postseason while not allowing a run.
“Look, we didn’t play our cleanest baseball game by any stretch,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We pride ourselves on doing everything we can to support the pitchers and making plays behind them. Today was probably not our best day.”
Milwaukee won its seventh straight game, becoming the fifth team to twice overcome four-run deficits for victories in a single postseason and the first since Philadelphia in 2022.
Game 3 of the matchup between teams seeking their first title is Monday night at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, where the Brewers last played in 2023.
Of the 57 previous teams to take 2-0 World Series leads, 46 claimed the championship.
Tampa Bay took a 4-2 lead in the highest-scoring Series first inning since 1993’s Game 4 as the teams combined for seven hits, tying the most in an opening frame.
Henderson followed Jacob Misiorowski in the Brewers’ rotation, the first time teammates 24 or younger started the first two games of a World Series since Cincinnati’s Gary Nolan and Ross Grimsley in 1972.
Henderson started on 11 days’ rest and struggled as the Rays fouled off 13 of 35 pitches in the first. He gave up four runs – three earned – in three innings.
Given an extra day of rest, Rasmussen allowed three runs and six hits over 3 2/3 innings in his shortest start since July 9.
“Just felt like he wasn’t as sharp as he’s been for quite some time,” Cash said.
Pratt made his fourth error of the postseason, the Brewers’ ninth in 10 games, bouncing his throw past first baseman Jake Bauers on a leadoff grounder by Díaz. Chandler Simpson and Junior Caminero followed with RBI singles, and Liam Hicks hit a two-run homer.
Chourio and Bauers started the bottom half with singles and first baseman Jonathan Aranda allowed Contreras’ one-out foul pop to bounce out of his mitt near netting in front of the seats.
With Bauers running on a full-count pitch, Contreras bounced an RBI single to the left of second baseman Richie Palacios, who had taken a step toward the bag. Mitchell’s two-out single cut the deficit to 4-2.
Hamilton hit an RBI grounder in the fourth that bounced under Aranda’s legs for an error.
Chourio threw out Hicks for the final out of the sixth when third base coach Brady Williams waved the slow-footed catcher to try to score from second on Mesa’s single.
“I think we’ve made some mistakes on the bases for sure, going back to yesterday,” Cash said. “To their credit, they have responded with everything that we have thrown at them in these first two games.”
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 be opposed by Brewers LHP Robert Gasser, who allowed one run over nine innings in his first two postseason starts.
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This story removes an incorrect reference to Brewers improving to 13-0 when Henderson starts.
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