Milwaukee walked into Tropicana Field on Monday night and turned Game 3 into another long night for opposing pitching. A relentless fifth inning broke the Rays open, Christian Yelich supplied the kind of baserunning that sets a clubhouse standard, and the Brewers rolled to a 10-1 victory for a 3-0 World Series lead.
A fifth inning that would not quit
The decisive frame was historic. Milwaukee sent 12 men to the plate in the fifth, producing eight runs on eight hits and a walk. All eight runs came with two outs, and the Brewers collected seven straight hits during their surge, another World Series first.
- Yelich drew a two-out walk, then took second on William Contreras’ infield single after Tampa Bay third baseman Junior Caminero tried to force him out.
- The initial call at second was out, but Milwaukee challenged successfully, loading the bases and keeping the inning alive.
- After former Brewers right-hander Freddy Peralta departed, Brice Turang drove in two with a sharply struck ball that deflected off shortstop Taylor Walls’ glove.
- Garrett Mitchell, Cooper Pratt and Sal Frelick followed with RBI hits.
- Right-hander Cole Sulser entered and surrendered run-scoring hits to David Hamilton and Jackson Chourio.
Walls called Turang’s ball “a knife in the chest,” while later summing up the whole inning more bluntly: “It got ugly quick.”
Chourio went 4-for-4, with two of those hits arriving in the fifth. He finished one hit short of matching the World Series single-game record held by Paul Molitor, who had five hits in Game 1 in 1982, and Albert Pujols, who did it in Game 3 in 2011.
Peralta wore down as Milwaukee stayed on plan
Peralta had been dominant since joining the Rays and was named ALCS MVP after Tampa Bay’s series against Cleveland. But his old club made him work immediately, forcing him through a 22-pitch opening inning. Milwaukee finally got to him in the third, when Yelich and Contreras each delivered first-pitch RBI singles.
Contreras entered the night batting .419 over 11 postseason games. The Brewers, meanwhile, continued the offensive identity that carried them through a 103-win regular season, an NLDS win over the Padres and an NLCS sweep of the two-time defending champion Dodgers.
“Our offense is built to kind of chip away and wear on pitchers,” Frelick said.
That approach was evident in Game 2 as well. Down 4-0 in Milwaukee, the Brewers fought back for a 5-4 win while making Rays pitchers throw 184 pitches, the second-highest total faced by any club in a game this postseason. Frelick hit the lone home run that night.
Manager Pat Murphy said the club has embraced its preferred form of pressure: “That’s dragging them. It says a lot for our guys that they’ve adopted that.”
The “drag ’em” mindset takes hold
Milwaukee’s hitters refer to their approach as dragging pitchers into a difficult at-bat and refusing to give them an easy exit. Jason Lane, the club’s offense and strategy coordinator, said Monday’s performance showed that philosophy “at its finest.”
The idea reached the Brewers through an unlikely route. Lane saw a video early last season in which former major leaguer Lance Berkman discussed an old playoff at-bat against John Smoltz. Berkman described falling behind 0-2 after chasing pitches and imagining himself in a pit, determined to pull the pitcher down with him. Lane shared the clip with Frelick, who gave the concept its sharper club language: How can he drag the pitcher to hell with him?
Yelich described the process as hitters trusting the next man in the order.
“It’s guys staying within themselves, taking what the game gives them and passing it on to the next guy,” Yelich said. “Then it’s the next guy going out there and having the will to compete and find a way to help the boys. We’ve taken it to that level.”
Jake Bauers said those grinding plate appearances help the hitter on deck as much as the man in the box.
“You know you’re about to step in the box and the guy on the mound is probably a little bit gassed,” Bauers said. “There’s definitely a little bit of a mental edge there that you can gain.”
The numbers from the regular season fit the description. Milwaukee ranked next-to-last in the Majors in home runs, but led baseball in on-base percentage and finished second in runs scored. The Brewers swung less often than any other team and ranked first in opposite-field hitting.
Yelich’s extra base set the tone
The fifth inning may have turned on Yelich’s read after his walk. With Tampa Bay’s defense playing deep, he took an aggressive secondary lead and was ready to run hard on contact. When Caminero fielded Contreras’ ball in the hole, Yelich beat the throw to second after the replay reversal.
Frelick praised the 14-year veteran for making a hustle play that could have been missed amid the hitting barrage.
“Don’t let that go under the radar, how impressive that is,” Frelick said. “That’s a 14-year vet — All-Stars, MVP, Silver Sluggers — and nobody takes more pride in running the bases than him. He sets the standard here.”
Owner Mark Attanasio saw Yelich’s lead from his suite and thought he might score on a double, but did not expect him to beat the play at second. Frelick said the dugout sensed the inning was ready to erupt as soon as Yelich made it safely.
A “Let’s go, Brewers” chant rose at Tropicana Field in the eighth, reflecting the sizable Milwaukee presence in the building. Now the Brewers are one win from the first championship in franchise history.
- Milwaukee has won eight straight postseason games, matching the streaks produced by the 2019 Nationals, 2014 Royals, 2005 White Sox and 2004 Red Sox.
- A win in Game 4 would make the Brewers the first club to reach nine consecutive postseason victories.
- Teams holding a 3-0 advantage in best-of-seven postseason series have won 42 of 43 times, with 33 of those matchups ending in sweeps.
- Only two clubs have pushed a 3-0 series deficit to a Game 7, and only the 2004 Red Sox completed a comeback, doing so against the Yankees in the ALCS.
- No World Series team facing a 3-0 deficit has extended the matchup to Game 6.
- Since the League Championship Series expanded to a seven-game format in 1985, no team has swept both the LCS and World Series.
Game 4 is scheduled for Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. CT, on FOX, FOX Deportes and FOX One. Attanasio said the reality of the moment was beginning to settle in for his family. “It’s all very hard to take in,” he said. “It’s beginning to be real now.”
