If any team was built for digging out of trouble this October, it is Milwaukee. Down four runs before they had swung a bat, the Brewers clawed back to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 in the second game of the Fall Classic on Saturday night, sending a crowd of 43,245 at American Family Field home happy and taking a 2-0 grip on the series.
Rookie starter Logan Henderson never settled in the opening frame. Tampa Bay scored four times off him, with Liam Hicks capping the burst with a home run. It turned out to be all the Rays would get.
Milwaukee’s reply was patient. William Contreras and Garrett Mitchell each drove in a run with a single when Milwaukee came up in the first to make it 4-2. In the fourth, a fumble by Rays first baseman Jonathan Aranda let a third run in. In the sixth, Sal Frelick drew the Brewers level by sending a pitch over the fence with nobody on. The decisive hit came from an unlikely source: Cooper Pratt, 22, whose throwing error had helped the Rays early, lined an opposite-field single in the seventh to bring Brice Turang home.
From there the bullpen, which threw six scoreless innings, had to survive a tense ninth with the tying run on third. Aaron Ashby, still unscored upon this postseason, rang up Yandy Díaz at 3-2 when he could not hold back his bat.
Manager Pat Murphy singled out the rookie afterward as proof that a bad start need not decide the night. It was Milwaukee’s sixth comeback win of these playoffs. History favours them: more than four in five teams that went 2-0 up in a seven-game series went on to take it. After a day off Sunday, Game 3 is set for Monday in Tampa Bay, and Milwaukee now needs just two more victories for a first-ever title.
