MILWAUKEE – They held a two-day celebration for the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field, Games 1 and 2 of the World Series turning into a pulsating polka for the home team, a resilient group that seemingly wins under any circumstance.
The Tampa Bay Rays? They, too, were invited to the party. But their play continues to suggest they’ll be a mere footnote to this Fall Classic.
The best team in the American League has looked like no match for the Brewers even as they lost Games 1 and 2 of this World Series by one run. Yet in their deflating 5-4 loss to Milwaukee on Saturday, Oct. 24, the gap between an opportunistic club two wins from a championship and a confused squad bumbling toward the winter grew wider.
That's crazy, right? After all, the Rays got the tying run into scoring position in the top of the ninth inning in both games, with Yandy Díaz striking out against Trevor Megill on a check swing to end Game 2.
Yet they know how bad they've been. And know what they squandered after getting shut out the final eight innings after handing a 4-0 lead to ace Drew Rasmussen after one time at-bat - and then giving it all back.
"I guarantee you one thing, man: Nobody in this clubhouse wants to play the baseball we’ve played the last couple days," says third baseman Junior Caminero, who gathered his flailing squad and exhorted them to play better in the sixth inning Saturday. "That’s not who we are. But this is the type of baseball that’s unfolded.
"It’s unfortunate."
There's no shortage of reasons why Caminero would aim to give his club a talking-to:
A ball rolling through first baseman Jonathan Aranda’s legs for a run-scoring error. A botched pop fly by Chandler Simpson that led to a charitably-scored single in the sixth, starting a chain of events that would lead to the go-ahead run scoring an inning later.
And an aggressive yet pragmatic send of Liam Hicks on a single to shallow left field that resulted in the catcher getting thrown out at home ending the sixth and cutting down a crucial insurance run.
Jackson Chourio throws out the runner at home! 💪 pic.twitter.com/NGx1L3D5MS
— MLB (@MLB) October 25, 2026
"The game’s speeding up on us right now," says Rays center fielder Jonny DeLuca, "and we’ve got to be able to slow it down and do our jobs and clean everything up. Just believe in ourselves, trusting the guys we have."
All of it – along with a couple more managerial moves from Kevin Cash that did not work out – has buried the Rays in a 2-0 hole, one that perhaps even their personal oasis of Tropicana Field cannot solve.
Not when escaping American Family Field turned into a nightmare.
Oh, it didn’t start out that way this time.
The Rays seized a four-run lead before the charcoal in the parking lot grills had time to cool, taking advantage of Brewers rookies Cooper Pratt (throwing error on leadoff batter) and Logan Henderson (three run-scoring hits given up, including a two-run homer by Hicks) to hand a massive advantage to their ace, Rasmussen.
By the sixth inning, that lead was gone. Nine outs later, so, too, was any hope the Rays had of squaring the series before returning to Tampa Bay.
The Brewers grinded Rasmussen down, immediately halving their deficit with two first-inning runs of their own on run-scoring singles from the unstoppable William Contreras and Garrett Mitchell. Of greater import, Rasmussen was at 48 pitches after two innings and 66 after three as the Brewers fouled off 22 of his pitches.
The Rays’ pitching situation was going to be suboptimal. And they could not live with that, not when other mistakes forced their arms to be perfect.
Perhaps the most important was Aranda simply muffing a spinning grounder from No. 9 batter David Hamilton in the bottom of the fourth. Aranda was playing slightly in and likely could have cut down Sal Frelick from third base.
Instead, Frelick scored to trim the Rays’ lead to 4-3. The Brewers were granted an extra out. And after a two-out walk to Jake Bauers, Rasmussen’s night was done after just 3⅔ innings.
"You don’t want to make errors," says Aranda. "But things happen, right? We’re professionals so we have to have the mindset of forgetting what happened."
For a moment, the tide was stemmed. Cam Booser, their top lefty reliever, retired Christian Yelich to clean up Rasmussen’s bases-loaded jam and followed with a scoreless fifth. At that point, Cash had choices to make.
Burn right-hander Griffin Jax, their likely Game 4 starter, to take them into the later innings and square the series? Go to higher-leverage right-hander Tyler Wells early?
Instead, he opted for lefty Ian Seymour, who walked two and failed to get an out in his last outing, ALCS Game 6 against Cleveland.
This time, the damage was instantaneous.
He lost the left-on-left match with Frelick badly, the Brewers’ charismatic right fielder drilling a liner on the ninth pitch of the at-bat that cleared the wall in right center field.
Tie game.
SAL FRELICK. TIE GAME. pic.twitter.com/aSkT0NcTRU
— MLB (@MLB) October 25, 2026
Seymour issued a two-out walk and should have escaped after that, but Yelich’s bloop kept floating into left field, past Taylor Walls. Simpson converged. Walls pulled off, then took another step toward Simpson, who made a stumbling grab.
But the ball popped out of Simpson’s glove as he rolled over. No runs scored. But Wells had to be summoned to finish the inning.
And perhaps the up-down had an impact on the 6-foot-8 right-hander who'd thrown more than one inning only once since Sept. 5.
He yielded a leadoff double to Brice Turang to start the seventh. Garrett Mitchell nearly blew the roof off this place with a long drive to right, but Turang advanced to third on the flyout.
More decision time for Cash: Stick with Wells, or opt for righty Kevin Kelly, a far less prolific strikeout pitcher, for Pratt?
He went with Kelly. Pratt, predictably, put the ball in play, dumping a single past a drawn-in infield.
"Cooper Pratt did a heck of a job staying on the ball, not trying to do too much, and shoot it the other way," says Cash.
It was 5-4 Brewers, a couple hours and eight innings after the Rays seized a 4-0 lead and, seemingly, were poised to square this Series.
"There’s gonna be frustration when you don’t play well," says Simpson. "When you look back at both of these games, you can generalize that you could’ve won both if some things went your way. Definitely frustrating, but positive to think if we clean those things up, we’ll be on top."
But they can’t stay out of their own way. And now they must win two of their next three, or their season will end in Tampa Bay.
"Look, we’re down 2-0 but we haven’t lost the World Series," says Díaz. "So there’s still work to do."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rays are their own worst enemy. Brewers running them out of this World Series
D.J. Short
Matthew Pouliot
