The Milwaukee Brewers hit Tampa Bay with an eight-run inning where every run came with two outs, and now they are one win from their first World Series title after a 10-1 demolition of the Rays on Monday night. The Brewers World Series lead is 3-0, and the sport’s own history says that is basically a closed door.
Here’s the number that matters most: no team has ever come back from 3-0 down in a World Series. In fact, only one team in any best-of-seven has done it, the 2004 Red Sox in the ALCS, according to Yahoo Sports. Game 4 is Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET on Fox, and a Brewers win ends it. If you missed how the matchup began, our World Series opening-night breakdown has the full backstory.
The inning that powered the Brewers World Series lead
Milwaukee scored eight runs in the fifth inning at Tropicana Field, and every one of them came with two outs. ESPN reports it is a World Series record for two-out runs in an inning. The Brewers also strung together seven straight hits, which ESPN says is a postseason record.
It started with a replay review. Christian Yelich was ruled safe at second, which loaded the bases and chased Rays starter Freddy Peralta, a former Brewer. Then came the avalanche. Brice Turang’s two-run single off reliever Cam Booser ticked off the glove of shortstop Taylor Walls. Booser gave up four runs on just 12 pitches.
Notice what was missing: a home run.
Milwaukee did all of that damage with singles and doubles, death by a thousand paper cuts. That’s the part that should worry every other team in baseball.
How the Brewers title run keeps beating Tampa Bay
Jackson Chourio, just 22, went 4-for-5 with an RBI, two runs and a steal, his third straight multihit game of the Series. William Contreras added three hits and now has 18 this postseason, the most in Milwaukee playoff history. Milwaukee outhit Tampa Bay 16-3. (That is not a typo. Sixteen to three.)
On the mound, Robert Gasser went six innings and allowed one hit and one walk with three strikeouts, per NBC Chicago. And Brandon Woodruff pitched the ninth in his first appearance since hurting his shoulder July 4. He gave up the Rays’ only run, a Yandy Díaz RBI double, but his own words say plenty about what it meant. “We’ve had a lot of playoff games, and I haven’t been able to participate in one since (2021),” he said.
This wasn’t a one-night fluke, either. The Brewers took Game 1 by a 3-2 score, then came back from four runs down to win Game 2, 5-4. So far they have outscored Tampa Bay 18-7 in the series and hit exactly one home run. It was also Milwaukee’s eighth straight postseason win, after an MLB-best 103 regular-season victories.
Why a Milwaukee Brewers championship matters beyond Wisconsin
Here’s the thing: this is a first-time champion either way. The Brewers have never won a World Series and lost to the Cardinals in seven games in 1982. The Rays have never won one, either. If Milwaukee finishes this off, a Midwest small-market team built on depth rather than superstar money will have beaten the sport’s best the hard way, by sweeping the Dodgers in the NLCS and then taking the first three from Tampa. Meanwhile, the rest of baseball is staring down a looming lockout and spending spree that will test whether that kind of roster-building can be repeated.
It may also be baseball’s first all-indoor championship, and one of only six World Series since 1995 to match the best record in each league. In other words, the two best teams showed up, and one of them has looked a lot better.
One caution on the record books: outlets are describing the fifth inning in different ways, so we’re sticking to what ESPN and UPI have confirmed, the two-out record and the seven straight hits, rather than calling it the first eight-run inning in Series history.
What happens next in the Brewers World Series
Game 4 is Tuesday, Oct. 27, at Tropicana Field. If the Rays survive, Game 5 is Wednesday in Tampa. Then the series would move to American Family Field in Milwaukee for Game 6 on Friday, Oct. 30, and a Game 7 on Saturday, Oct. 31, with a travel day in between. Starting pitchers for Game 4 hadn’t been confirmed as of this writing.
The Rays have to win four straight against a team that has now won eight in a row in October. Baseball has never seen that happen. So clear Tuesday night, because the Brewers World Series dream is one win away from the title Milwaukee has waited a lifetime for.
