Milwaukee came out of Game 1 with a 3-2 World Series win, but nothing about the opener suggested either club is about to run away from this thing. The top seeds from each league played a tight, tense nine innings at American Family Field, with the Brewers taking a 1-0 series lead in their first Fall Classic appearance in 44 years.
Now the Rays hand the ball to their ace, Drew Rasmussen, in Game 2, while Milwaukee asks rookie Logan Henderson to handle one of the biggest starts in franchise history. First pitch is set for 8 p.m. ET, with FOX, FOX Deportes and FOX One carrying the game.
How the series reached Game 2
- Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash chose Nick Martinez for Game 1 and held Rasmussen back, continuing the extra-rest approach the Rays have used with Rasmussen because of his considerable injury history.
- The plan carried a clear upside: steal the opener against Milwaukee starter Jacob Misiorowski, then send Rasmussen out with a chance to build a 2-0 lead before the series moves to Tropicana Field for the next three games.
- Martinez pitched well overall, but Milwaukee scored twice in the first inning. The Rays spent the rest of the night trying to erase that early deficit and never quite got there.
- Jackson Chourio supplied a seventh-inning RBI hit that pushed the Brewers ahead 3-1. Tampa Bay later trimmed the margin to one, making that extra Milwaukee run the difference in the 3-2 final.
- With the series now tilted toward the Brewers, Rasmussen gets the assignment to bring Tampa Bay level.
Rasmussen carries the Rays’ answer
Cash’s Game 1 decision will be judged most sharply by what follows. Rasmussen has been outstanding this October, allowing only three runs in 21 postseason innings. Given that line, it is easy to imagine Tampa Bay wishing it had used him against Misiorowski after the Brewers jumped Martinez in the first.
But the Rays did not lose Game 1 because Martinez unraveled. They lost a close ballgame after falling behind immediately, and their ace is still available in Game 2. A strong Rasmussen start would restore the logic behind Cash’s alignment. A loss would leave Tampa Bay facing a far steeper climb heading home.
Henderson joins a growing rookie tradition
A rookie starting the second game of the World Series sounds like a high-wire act, but the stage has not been unfamiliar to young pitchers in recent Octobers. Henderson will be part of the fourth straight season in which a rookie has started a World Series game, and the eighth occurrence in the past nine years. The lone break came in 2022.
The recent run began with Dodgers rookie Walker Buehler in 2018. It has included Houston’s Luis García and Atlanta starters Tucker Davidson, Dylan Lee and Ian Anderson in 2021, and continued through Blue Jays rookie Trey Yesavage, who made two World Series starts in 2025.
| Rookie World Series starter span | Starts | ERA |
|---|---|---|
| 2018-25 | 15 | 3.30 |
Henderson has already given Milwaukee useful work this postseason. In two starts, both Brewers victories, he has allowed three earned runs over nine innings. The setting changes Saturday night, of course, but the club is not sending an untested arm into the unknown. Henderson has helped get Milwaukee here, and the Brewers will trust him to keep the rotation moving.
Chourio keeps finding the inning
Chourio’s postseason slash line does not leap off the page: a .205 average and .238 on-base percentage. Yet the Brewers’ biggest moments have repeatedly found him with a bat in his hands.
- He delivered a walk-off single against Padres closer Mason Miller in Game 2 of the National League Division Series.
- He hit a game-tying homer in Game 1 of that series.
- He collected a go-ahead hit in Game 4.
- He opened Game 3 of the National League Championship Series against Blake Snell with a leadoff home run.
- He added the vital seventh-inning RBI in the World Series opener.
That last hit may be the kind that lingers in a series this close. Chourio turned a one-run game into a two-run cushion, and Milwaukee needed every bit of it. The Brewers have the early edge, Rasmussen has the chance to change the shape of the matchup, and Henderson gets his first World Series turn. For a series that began with every pitch feeling expensive, Game 2 has the same look already.
