Category: MLB

Welcome to our series grading every member of the San Diego Padres’ 40-man roster. The roster being evaluated is current as of Oct. 18, prior to the end of the World Series. Because of that, it will include players who will be free agents once the postseason concludes. Each player will be graded on their performance in the 2026 season, including the playoffs. That performance will be weighted based on how much time the player spent with the team (availability is the best ability). 

Bargain Hunting for a DH

After a phenomenal rookie year in 2018, Miguel Andujar never quite found his place in the league. From 2019-23, his OPS was only above .700 once. Because of that, Andujar was tossed around from the New York Yankees to the Pittsburgh Pirates to the Oakland Athletics to the Cincinnati Reds. He entered free agency ahead of the 2026 season and couldn’t have picked a better time to do so. Andujar had just finished the 2025 season with a .318/.352/.470 slash line across 94 games. San Diego signed him as a big bat off the bench, and it turned out splendidly.

Overall Grade: B-

The lower grade is purely due to his time spent on the injured list. Andujar missed most of June with a hamstring strain before missing all of August and September due to a fracture in his right wrist. Those injuries held him down, but Andujar still managed to produce for San Diego. The slugger slashed .259/.303/.423 with five homers and 27 extra-base hits.

That production all came in just 74 games. Notably, Andujar doubled three times in two separate games in 2026. Only he and Cleveland Guardians star José Ramírez were able to complete the feat this season. Despite his lack of games played, Andujar was still able to produce in important situations for San Diego. He would be a welcome addition for the 2027 bench mix, if the price is right.

Andujar’s underlying metrics make his 2026 campaign quite interesting. His expected batting average (.264) was five points above his actual, but his expected slugging percentage (.376) was a full 47 points below his actual. That would suggest that Andujar was slightly unfortunate on balls put in play but quite lucky with taking extra bases. Whether he can continue that production in 2027 is a truly impossible question to ascertain after this season.

The World Series is back in Tropicana Field tonight. After dropping both games in Milwaukee, the Rays have the opportunity to start to make this series a bit more interesting if they can manage to win at home. Win Game 3 and, well, they’re not right back in the series, but it’s plausible that they could pull the thing off. Lose Game 3 and there won’t be a ton of suspense, at least not unless they manage to find a way to send the series back to Wisconsin.

Obviously, it’s not like the first two games that were played have been blowouts. Each game was decided by one run. Not much would have had to change for the Rays to win one or both games. Maybe as little as a play in each game going a bit more like “we look like a good team” and a bit less like “our defense suddenly looks like the 2026 Orioles.” Yet as far as a best-of-seven series goes, two close losses has the same impact as two blowout losses.

The game will get under way at 8pm on Fox, or at least that’s the scheduled start time. There are often network-induced shenanigans to delay the actual start by a few minutes.

Rays lineup

1. Yandy Díaz – DH
2. Ryan Vilade – 1B
3. Chandler Simpson – LF
4. Junior Caminero – 3B
5. Ben Williamson – 2B
6. Jonny DeLuca – CF
7. Victor Mesa Jr. – RF
8. Nick Fortes – C
9. Taylor Walls – SS

Rays starting pitcher Freddy Peralta was a Brewer when 2026 began. They pulled the “trade a pitcher before his final year ahead of free agency” move with him in sending him to the Mets, though Peralta kind of stunk for the Mets. The Rays gave him a chance and he’s done better for them, including during this postseason. This revival has probably made him a good bit of money in the coming free agency period.

Brewers lineup

1. Jackson Chourio – LF
2. Jake Bauers – 1B
3. Christian Yelich – DH
4. William Contreras – C
5. Brice Turang – 2B
6. Garrett Mitchell – CF
7. Cooper Pratt – SS
8. Sal Frelick – RF
9. David Hamilton – 3B

Milwaukee’s starting pitcher, Robert Gasser, has started one game in each of Milwaukee’s previous postseason series this year, allowing one run over nine innings. One thing that is kind of boring about the modern postseason is that starting pitchers going even five innings is a rarity.

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Matt Silverman, president of the Tampa Bay Rays for 17 years, evacuated with his family to Orlando, turned on CNN, and was devastated by the images, believing there would never be another game played at Tropicana Field.

Erik Neander, president of baseball operations of the Rays, was home without power, drove over to Tropicana Field, and was standing in water in the front office with skylight above him, with the roof blown off.

Rays manager Kevin Cash drove around the outside of Tropicana Field after Hurricane Milton, and thought it was like a horror move, and wanted to cry after seeing the damage.

Now, here they were Monday night, two years and days after Hurricane Milton and its 120-mph winds, ripped the roof off Tropicana Field, leaving the ballpark in shambles, causing $34.3 billion of damage in the area, standing on the field together before Game 3 of the World Series.

You talk about a miraculous comeback.

The Rays, who spent the entire 2025 season playing their home games in Tampa at the New York Yankees' spring training ballpark, were basking in the limelight and comfort of home, with their first World Series game at Tropicana Field since 2008.

“To be here, under this room, is just amazing,’’ Silverman told USA TODAY Sports. “I remember waking up early that next morning, and I was trying to figure out where we were going to play. I really thought at that time that we would never return here. The cost would be so prohibitive.’’

Neander was emotional just standing on the field watching his team take batting practice before Game 3, the horrific memories still so vivid.

“You’re seeing this footage as the second storm in such a short time period was ripping through and leaving buildings in tatters,’’ Neander softly said. “I’m thinking, 'Yeah, we’re probably playing the last game of that building at that point.’ There was a lot other more important stuff going on, with lives being impacted beyond the building, but it’s just so amazing to see it now.’’

When Neander and Rays executives toured the Trop just days after the destruction, never did any of them believe this day was possible.

“I remember walking in here and seeing the amount of water in places, seeing sky in the offices that we shouldn’t be able to see the skies,’’ Neander said. “The damage was considerable. It led to a lot of questions of whether we were going to be playing another game in here again. And candidly, we probably weren’t.’’

Andrew Miller, a special assistant with the players union after a 16-year career, lives with his family in Tampa and said Monday that he never would have believed he'd be setting foot in Tropicana Field again.

“I mean, just seeing this place fully exposed,’’ Miller said, “it was heartbreaking. In the moment, I didn’t think through the logistics of what they were going to do, but I couldn’t imagine how they were going to put the pieces back together.

“They did a great job. I mean, it’s unbelievable.’’

The damage was so extensive, costing $59.7 million in repairs that the Rays wouldn’t let new principal owner Patrick Zalupski even visit Tropicana Field while he was in process of closing out the $1.78 acquisition from Stu Sternberg. Yet, here they were, with a sellout crowd now admiring and appreciating the 38-year structure.

Home sweet home after having to play the entire 2025 season in Tampa at Steinbrenner Field, finishing in a tie with the Milwaukee Brewers for the best home record in baseball, 55-26.

“We like playing at home,’’ Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Steinbrenner was not home. Steinbrenner was incredibly nice for us to be able to stay in the bay area and play, but there wasn't any player that walked into that stadium and said, “Oh, man, this feels like home.’

“This is home.’’

Still, to this day, Cash has trouble believing this is even reality, not after what he witnessed that night of two years ago.

“I saw it in the middle of the night,’’ Cash said. “We were getting texts going back and forth. I did not think it was real. Then the next day I drove down from Gainesville, my in-laws' place, because we had evacuated, and saw it. Kind of speechless.

“I just drove around the outside. There were branches and trees and tarp. It was a mess.’’

The stadium was in such tatters, with the roof ripped off, that the Rays didn’t think it was worth even repairing since they were seeking a new ballpark anyways. They had to replace all 24 roof panels. Now, with the place looking as good as it has since it opened for the expansion Rays in 1998, with upgraded clubhouses, renovated suites, new playing surface, and brighter lighting, they will be here just another two years, with plans approved and formalized to move into a new $2.3 billion facility in Tampa in 2009.

“This place is as nice,’’ Silverman said, “as it’s ever been.’’

So, when Brewers closer Trevor Megill chastised the white roof at Tropicana Field on Sunday, saying “Whoever decided to make the roof the same [expletive] color as the baseball is a [expletive] idiot,’’ Rays officials could only shake their head.

“This represents a lot of additional meaning,’’ Neander says, “for obvious reasons.’’

St. Petersburg mayor Ken Welch told the Sports Business Journal: “To us, it’s a symbol of resilience, what seemed like an insurmountable challenge at the time. It’s now the home for the biggest game in baseball.”

In 2½ years, they’ll have their own gorgeous $2.3 billion retractable roof ballpark in Tampa, which the Rays believe could be a huge boon to attendance and their banking accounts after averaging just 17,469 fans this season, second-worst in baseball. They haven’t had season attendance ranking higher than third-worst in the American League since 2010.

“I’m really looking forward to a new ballpark,’’ Silverman said. “We tried for almost 20 years. This new ownership group has been able to do something, that frankly, I didn’t think was in our capacity to do in Tampa.

“So, I will be even more emotional when that opens up.’’

But for now, even with no view of the sky in the enclosed dome, the evening at the Trop never looked so beautiful.

Follow Bob Nightengale at X @Bnightengale.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hurricanes ripped the roof off Tropicana Field. Now it’s hosting the World Series

The series shifts to Tampa with the Brewers up two games to none. But both games were close, it isn’t like the Brewers have been blowing the Rays out or anything. I’m still hoping for seven games.

The lineups:

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And it was Joe Siddall’s birthday yesterday, he is 59. So get down into your tradition catcher’s stance (no one knee down stuff) and say Happy Birthday to him, a day late.

Today we have Frank Wills (who would be 68, but he passed away in 2012), Dominic Leone (35, who was part of the trade that brought us Randal Grichuk), and Francisco Liriano (43, who was part of the trade that brought us Teoscar Hernandez) all having birthdays.

After the Brewers relentlessly chipped away at the four-run lead the Rays staked themselves out to in the first inning of Game 2 on Saturday to take a commanding 2-0 lead, the World Series heads down to Florida, and this is the first time since 2023 that Milwaukee has played in the domed confines of Tropicana Field thanks to damages from Hurricane Milton forcing the Rays to play the 2025 season at George Steinbrenner Field. Funnily enough, the starting pitcher that day for the Brew Crew was Freddy Peralta, who will take the ball for Tampa Bay to kick off the ballgame. The Brewers will counter with rookie lefty Robert Gasser, marking the fifth time in history that a team will slot a rookie starting pitcher in consecutive games in the World Series, per the incomparable Sarah Langs.

Lineups:

Ben Williamson hitting fifth! In the World Series! What a time to be alive.

First Pitch: 5:00pm Pacific

Although the Atlanta Braves are no longer in the running, we have a fun World Series matchup that has yet to disappoint. Both games thus far have been controversial and close in the best way as a viewer. Tonight should be no different.

The Rays will be bringing Freddie Peralta to the mound. Since leaving the Mets, the Rays have clearly helped shape him into his former self as he will be facing his former team of eight seasons in the World Series. Peralta has pitched 16.2 innings so far this postseason and has held a sterling 1.08 ERA in that span.

The Brewers are bringing breakout pitcher Robert Gasser to the mound. Gasser pitched 109.1 innings of 3.87 ERA ball in the regular season. So far this postseason he has pitched 11.2 innings while limiting hitters a 2.31 ERA.

Follow along in the comments as we watch and see if the Rays can keep the Brewers from an almost unsurmountable lead of 3-0.

First pitch is at 8:00 EDT.

The Milwaukee Brewers travel to Tropicana Field with a commanding 2-0 lead in the World Series. They will start Robert Gasser while the Tampa Bay Rays will counter with Freddy Peralta. First pitch is scheduled for 7pm central time and the game broadcast will be available via Fox.

The Tampa Bay Rays have their back against the wall after dropping the first two games of the 2026 World Series in Milwaukee. They should have the advantage in this one with a resurgent Freddy Peralta on the mound,. However, with both bullpens a little more rested after an off day, this will be all hands on deck for the Brewers pen after a short outing from lefty Robert Gasser as they look to put the Rays into a hole from which no team has ever escaped in the World Series. Only the 2004 Boston Red Sox have been able to overcome a 3-0 deficit in any best-of seven playoff series.

The Rays should be helped by the move home to Tropicana Field, at least. The Brewers spent a lot of their time on Sunday engaged in pop-up practice to try and get used to dealing with a roof that is a really tough background to find a baseball against. The Trop certainly has its quirks, and that’s good for the Rays, but they have to stop running into outs on the basepaths. The two teams have been pretty equal in the hitting department, but the Rays have played too desperate from the start and failed to cash in their opportunities.

Time/Place: 8:00 p.m. ET, Tropicana Field, Tampa, Florida

SB Nation sites: DRaysBays/Brew Crew Ball

Broadcast: FOX

Pitching Matchup: RHP Freddy Peralta (2-0, 1.08 ERA) vs. LHP Robert Gasser (0-0, 1.00 ERA)

No slowing down

📺: FOX
📻: WTMJ#WinOurWaypic.twitter.com/rD50NvIzAE

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 26, 2026

Home is home

👀: FOX / FOX ONE
👂: 95.7 WDAE#ForTampaBay | #WorldSeriespic.twitter.com/EZWcpXIeGt

— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) October 26, 2026

Go Rays!

The Milwaukee Brewers took early punches from the Tampa Bay Rays at home in Game 2 of the World Series back on Saturday evening. Then, they fired right back – all the way to a 5-4 come from behind victory that saw them surge to a 2-0 lead in this Best of 7 affair.

Tampa’s in a bind. Lucky for them, though, they’re finally back at home in the friendly, remodeled confines of Tropicana Field.

Milwaukee will send lefty Robert Gasser to the mound to start, while the home squad will turn to former Brewer stud Freddy Peralta for the game’s first pitch – and, hopefully, another hundred or so after that. Peralta, who went 70-42 with a 3.59 ERA across 931.0 IP with the Brewers prior to being dealt to the New York Mets before the 2026 season – reinvented himself yet again after Tampa acquired him prior to the 2026 trade deadline, and now he’ll get to face his former club in what could be his final start of any sort prior to hitting free agency for the first time.

First pitch will be tossed shortly after 8:00 PM ET per usual, with FOX on the broadcast.

Here’s how both clubs will line up to begin:

The @RaysBaseball starting lineup for Game 3 of the #WorldSeries! pic.twitter.com/qNtZsg6hAG

— MLB (@MLB) October 26, 2026

The #WorldSeries Game 3 lineup for the @Brewers! pic.twitter.com/TjPhNjBOeW

— MLB (@MLB) October 26, 2026

Brewers explode vs. Rays to seize 3-0 lead in World Series originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

When it’s your year, the signs will be evident.

The Milwaukee Brewers exploded to a 3-0 World Series lead over the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday, using a powerful fifth inning en route to a 10-1 result.

Milwaukee faced former pitcher Freddy Peralta and got the better of him beginning in the third inning. Christian Yelich drove in Jackson Chourio before William Contreras hit a single to bring home Jake Bauers.

William Contreras adds another run for the Brewers! #WorldSeriespic.twitter.com/Tox3gPvY1U

— MLB (@MLB) October 27, 2026

Milwaukee started with Robert Gasser. The 27-year-old left-hander turned in an excellent performance, lasting six innings and allowing just one hit and one walk with three strikeouts. The Brewers couldn’t have asked for much better use of a non-star.

With Gasser managing the Rays, Milwaukee completely broke open the game in the fifth inning.

Despite having two outs, Milwaukee pulled off the improbable and scored eight runs. Seven consecutive batters registered a hit, all leading to runs. It’s the first time in MLB postseason history that has happened.

It started with Brice Turang sneaking one in to bring home Chourio and Yelich. Peralta had just exited and Tampa Bay turned to top lefty Cam Booser to get out of the jam, but it turned into a nightmare inning regardless.

Chourio eventually returned for another at-bat and hit a deep double to bring David Hamilton home, rounding out the scoring in the lengthy inning.

ALL 8 FIFTH-INNING RUNS IN ONE VIDEO pic.twitter.com/Umvvau3c5V

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 27, 2026

Milwaukee cooled off from there but made sure to limit Tampa Bay in the process. Eventually, the Brewers brought in Brandon Woodruff to close out the action in the ninth.

The former two-time All-Star hadn’t pitched since July, but returned to the venue where he made his MLB debut to shed some rust.

He allowed two hits, including a double to Yandy Diaz on a full count that brought in Cedric Mullins for Tampa Bay’s lone score. Woodruff then grounded out Jonathan Aranda to seal it.

Milwaukee ended the game with 16 hits to Tampa Bay’s three, with two of those three coming in the ninth.

Chourio led Milwaukee by going 4-for-5 at the plate to improve his bid for World Series MVP. Turang, Yelich and William Contreras all had multiple hits for the Brewers.

Game 4 in Tampa Bay is set for 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Tuesday. If the Rays’ offense cannot wake up, Milwaukee could secure its first ever World Series via a sweep.

Facing a 2-0 deficit in the World Series, the Tampa Bay Rays shook up their lineup for Game 3 at Tropicana Field, benching All-Star first baseman Jonathan Aranda and penciling catcher Nick Fortes into the lineup instead of Liam Hicks against Milwaukee Brewers left-hander Robert Gasser.

Aranda has started all 11 postseason games this year and recorded four hits in Games 1 and 2 of the World Series. He committed a pair of misplays in the field in Game 2, allowing a grounder to go between his legs that enabled a run to score and failing to reel in a pop fly that was dropping near the screen in foul ground.

He was also doubled off second base on Junior Caminero's line drive to third base to end the first inning of Game 1. Aranda is generally considered among the Rays' "big three" bats that hit near the top of the lineup, along with slugging leadoff batter Yandy Díaz and Caminero.

Hicks started all but one of the Rays' playoff games, coming off the bench in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series against Cleveland, when ace Drew Rasmussen started. Hicks hit a two-run homer in Game 2 to cap the Rays' four-run first inning.

But he got hit on the right elbow by a DL Hall pitch leading off the sixth inning. With dominant lefty reliever Aaron Ashby on the mound in the eighth, manager Kevin Cash pinch-hit Ryan Vilade in his place; Vilade struck out, but is starting Game 2 at first over Aranda.

The Brewers stole four of their five bases in the game with Fortes behind the plate after Hicks was removed, although all the steals came with reliever Kevin Kelly on the mound.

Fortes flew to Jupiter, Florida, for the birth of his first child on Sunday before crossing the state from Palm Beach County to Pinellas County for Game 3.

While Aranda and Hicks are both left-handed hitters and the Brewers are starting lefty Robert Gasser, Aranda started all four playoff games in the Rays' previous matchups against lefties, including the Yankees' Max Fried, a pair of starts from Guardians rookie Parker Messick and another against Cleveland lefty Foster Griffin. Hicks started three of those games.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rays shake up lineup in World Series Game 3, benching Jonathan Aranda, Liam Hicks

It’s time for the third game of what so far has been a strong World Series between the Rays and the Brewers. And tonight, the crown jewell of the baseball world heads to… uh, the Trop.

As a child of the 90s, I am somewhat nostalgic for gross old domes. The first World Series I ever remember was won in the SkyDome, after all. But now that a 30-year ballpark building boon has transformed the aesthetics of big league baseball forever, it’s hard to stomach games played on plastic grass under a tarp. At least it’ll be loud maybe?

Anyway, while I’m rooting for the Brewers to win the whole thing, I care first and foremost about seeing a long series. Six games minimum, seven preferred, obviously. So let’s go Rays, who will be taking the field behind Freddy Peralta.

Coverage starts at 8, catch it on FOX.

A straightforward and fulfilling series of blog posts might involve looking at the top 5 moments from a given season, but this is McCovey Chronicles and I’m me, so, let’s look at the top 5 stories from this dreadful series. Whereas a moment encapsulates a series of events — or a single event! — and its commensurate emotion(s), a story is a range of events and a host of emotions that creates a narrative. The San Francisco Giants wanted to tell a certain story in 2026 but instead let’s look at the one they actually told.

We’ll start with the aspect of the roster that heralded the 2026 team’s downfall. That area of the roster that was the “key offseason target” last year netted a group that included Tyler Mahler and Adrian Houser for the rotation and, um, some guys for the bullpen: Sam Hentges, Jason Foley, Reiver Sanmartin, Caleb Kilian, Rowan Wick, and Ryan Borucki. For some, this list might be uninspiring. For the Giants, it was basically a perfectly executed plan:

“We’re most definitely open to trying to add some arms that we think are going to help us on the starting side and the bullpen side.”

Now, why did the Giants think that this group would help? Well, add it all up, and Mahler and Houser were basically worth 4 WAR combined. Hentges and Foley were both ~1.5-WAR relievers at their peaks (2023) — adding those into the mix basically put a possible floor at where the pitching staff ended 2025 (+15.8 fWAR), and then it would be a matter of younger players taking a step forward.

That this group wound up amounted to just about 2 WAR total (3.5-WAR gap) is a good reason why the staff finished at just 9.8 fWAR in value after the season. The other, of course, is that a lot of players failed to develop or simply slid into disaster territory (Ryan Walker). Logan Webb missing time with injury and missing his projected WAR by maybe 1.5 is another factor, along with all those other injuries, but the point is: the Giants thought they had a good plan that just didn’t work out.

It’s not exactly arrogance, but it does smack of something personality-driven. It was pretty clear from the outside looking in that their offseason decisions signaled some sort of shrug or fingers crossed theme or simply being comfortable with the results of a Lotto scratcher, but it does seem like the Giants — led by Buster Posey, of course — seems to be constructing a front office pitching philosophy from first principles. Maybe it’s the hubris of thinking that all the collective knowledge from the Moneyball era is bunk or maybe it’s the result of really coming to underst and that “baseball is hard,” but if a dumb, worthless pile of loser blogger nonsense like me could see that Tyler Mahle, Adrian Houser, and some TJ recovery guys weren’t going to bolster a pitching staff and that relying on development success was a risky proposition in the face of a decade of relative non-success and that expecting things to improve significantly under the direction of a neophyte major league coaching staff was a bad idea, then I can only draw the conclusion that they didn’t see something I didn’t, they thought something different about their own decision-making.

Could I have been wrong, too? Well, sure, I often am; but, all I was doing was looking at numbers and some basic context and not imagining that the floor was something different from what was plainly obvious. And, I think Buster Posey’s comments about this offseason suggest that I am more right for viewing the situation this way all along than I was wrong. Andrew Baggarly wrote up the team’s approach to the offseason from the pitching-side of the equation (a serendipitous discovery this morning as I was working on this piece) and put this quote from Posey in his article for The Athletic:

“So with the way the game’s changed, to me, we have to make an effort to increase stuff in our system and get it to the big-league level. 

Again, this feels like constructing a pitching staff from first principles.

Perhaps this is just a necessary evil or built-in aspect of a first-time org leader, but, yeah. Pitchers have been throwing harder for a while now. Logan Webb has stood out as an exception to that, which is why he’s always been remarkable. But, yeah, Carlos Rodon, Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto — why else would the Giants be extremely interested in them? Hard-throwing strikeout guys.

Baggarly’s piece does verify something that was easy to suspect while watching the team pitch this season: confusion and discoordination when it came to messaging and emphasis.

It took weeks of discussions in October to identify deeper issues that included a muddled hierarchy among the pitching coaches under a manager, Vitello, who was navigating a 162-game season for the first time.

“When we sat back and analyzed the way the group operated this year, we all felt there needed to be a clearer chain of command,” Posey said. “That’s where we’re going to start: It’s going to flow through Meccage and we need these guys to work as a team. […] if we have to sit and meet as a group for 15 or 20 minutes each day to get everybody on the same page, and they can argue through everything there is to argue, that’s what we’re gonna do. That was not done daily last year.

So, the Giants had part of a plan. It’s hard not to imagine that this disorganization and limited imagination on the pitching side stayed in that group, and that’s why this was one of the key storylines of the season. Of course, the biggest incident of the season involved the pitching staff, too, so, between that and Posey’s comments in The Athletic piece and the simple matter of their dreadful on-field performance (eighth-worst team ERA and sixth-worst WAR total of the Oracle Park era).

The thing about “stuff” is that it’s expensive if you don’t develop it internally. The Giants’ 7.58 K/9 (the easiest marker of stuff) ranks 17th out of 27 seasons at Oracle Park, right between 2017 (7.65) and 2014 (7.52), right between the eras where you couldn’t have a bunch of groundballers (2017) and you could (2014). The 3.75 BB/9 is the third-worst of the Oracle Park era, after only 2008 (4.07) and 2000 (3.88). And their player development seemed to be focused on producing more Logan Webbs than strikeout guys before lucking into Jackson Flora, and so course-correcting seems like a really tall task, especially in a single offseason.

The Brewers took both games at home to start the World Series. They take that 2-0 lead to the Trop tonight as the Brewers and Rays face off for Game 3.

The Brewers look like they’ll start Robert Gasser, a fly ball pitcher who got 1.5 fWAR in 109.1 innings and 21 appearances (20 starts). This season was his first major work in MLB; he threw only 33.2 MLB innings across 2024 and 2025. He has given up only 1 run in 9 innings across 2 starts in the 2026 postseason.

The Rays will start former Brewer Freddy Peralta tonight. He has given up only 2 runs in 16.2 innings of postseason work, which included a brief appearance out of the bullpen against Cleveland.

The game starts at 7:00pm US Central time. You can watch on FOX/FOX ONE or listen on ESPN Radio.

Lineups:

No slowing down

📺: FOX
📻: WTMJ#WinOurWaypic.twitter.com/rD50NvIzAE

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 26, 2026

The @RaysBaseball starting lineup for Game 3 of the #WorldSeries! pic.twitter.com/qNtZsg6hAG

— MLB (@MLB) October 26, 2026