Rays refuse to go home: Williamson's 12th-inning single beats Brewers 4-3

Three outs from the end

The champagne was ready. The Milwaukee Brewers were three outs from a sweep, three outs from the first World Series championship in franchise history, and three outs from turning Tropicana Field into a celebration for their travelling fans. Instead, the Tampa Bay Rays produced a great escape, winning Game 4 by 4-3 in 12 innings on Tuesday night and forcing a fifth game.

Pinch-hitter Ben Williamson ended it. With the bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the 12th, he hit a chopper over first baseman Jake Bauers and into right field, scoring pinch-runner Nick Fortes. Minutes earlier, Milwaukee rookie Cooper Pratt had put the Brewers ahead in the top of the inning, and Tampa Bay's season had looked finished.

The result leaves Milwaukee leading the best-of-seven series 3-1, but Tampa Bay alive. Game 5 is scheduled for Wednesday night back at Tropicana Field, with Milwaukee's Jacob Misiorowski lined up to start and Rays manager Kevin Cash yet to name his starter. Neither club has ever won a World Series, which is why Game 4 carried such weight: for Milwaukee, a chance to finish the job at the first opportunity; for Tampa Bay, win or go home.

Chandler Simpson gave Tampa Bay the lead in the second inning, driving home Jonny DeLuca with an RBI double. Milwaukee levelled in the fourth, when Sal Frelick singled and scored on Pratt's double. Tampa Bay went back in front in the bottom of the fourth after Junior Caminero scored when David Hamilton's throw sailed past first base, but Hamilton made amends in the fifth, homering off Rays starter Griffin Jax to tie the game at 2-2.

Simpson made a leaping catch at the wall in the ninth, and the game moved through the tenth and eleventh innings without another run, before a crowd of 40,514.

A rally built on singles, not swings

Pratt looked as though he had delivered the decisive blow. The 22-year-old rookie, who finished with four hits, led off the top of the 12th by hitting a 2-2 sweeper from Ian Seymour over the wall in left-centre field. It gave Milwaukee a 3-2 lead. Jackson Chourio's two hits took him to 10 hits in the first four games, a mark previously reached in a World Series only by Babe Ruth in 1928, but Pratt's power at the top of the 12th seemed to have stolen the evening.

What followed was not a blast, but a sequence of small, sharp baseball plays. Caminero led off the bottom of the 12th with a grounder to third baseman Joey Ortiz, whose throw got past Bauers at first base. Caminero, already carrying a foot problem, then raced from first to third on Liam Hicks's single to left field before being replaced by pinch-runner Cedric Mullins. Shane Drohan, brought in to replace Antonio Senzatela, faced four batters, allowed four singles and recorded no outs.

DeLuca's single up the middle scored Mullins and tied the game at 3-3. Simpson then singled to centre field to load the bases, and Milwaukee responded by bringing five infielders in. It made no difference. Williamson, who had been just 1 for 15 in the postseason before that at-bat, kept his chopper high enough to clear Bauers, and Fortes came home with the winning run. Seymour was credited with the win; Drohan took the loss.

"It just shows the resiliency of this group," Williamson said. "We continue to fight, and that's been the motto this series and this full season, is just fight." Simpson was just as direct: "We've got a lot of fight in us. We're never going to shy away. We were going to keep fighting until the end — the last inning, the last out, the last play, the last pitch. That's what we did tonight." Ortiz offered no shelter for himself: "There's no excuse. Not one at all. I should make that play every time."

Why one win changes the temperature

One win does not erase a 3-1 deficit. The Rays are only the fifth of 26 teams to trail 3-0 in a World Series and still win Game 4, and the previous four all lost Game 5. Of 43 teams to trail 3-0 in any best-of-seven postseason series, only the 2004 Boston Red Sox have come back to win. It was also only the fourth game in World Series history in which a team staved off elimination with an extra-inning victory.

Yet the manner of the win matters, because it exposed the first real crack in Milwaukee's postseason armour. The Brewers had arrived in Florida with a 10-1 postseason record. In Game 4, an error opened the door and a bullpen that had pitched eight consecutive scoreless innings could not close it. Caminero limped off after his sprint to third base, and Cash still insisted his star would play in Game 5. "He'll play tomorrow on one leg. I'll make sure of it," Cash said.

Milwaukee must now find a way to win one more game against a team that has just remembered how to survive. Tampa Bay must win three more in a row, a task that remains enormous, but the alternative on Tuesday night was the end of the season. For one night, at least, the story of this World Series is not a sweep. It is a rookie's home run, an error, four straight singles, and a pinch-hitter who had barely had a hit all postseason stepping forward.