Aaron Ashby got the final five outs Saturday night, but the swing that stayed with the Brewers came an inning earlier. Sal Frelick, a four-homer regular-season hitter who had not gone deep since July 11, turned on a ninth-pitch fastball from Tampa Bay left-hander Ian Seymour and drove it over the center-field wall to pull Milwaukee even in a 5-4 World Series win at American Family Field.
The result
Milwaukee had climbed out of a 4-0 hole, scoring twice in the first and once in the fourth, when Frelick came up in the sixth with the Brewers down 4-3. Seymour kept coming at him with fastballs, and Frelick kept extending the at-bat with foul balls.
On the ninth pitch, a 92.9 mph four-seamer caught too much plate. Frelick sent it toward the deepest part of the ballpark and watched it carry out. Bernie Brewer made his first World Series slide, the home crowd came unglued, and Frelick pumped his fist around the bases.
“I don’t hit many homers, especially to center field,” Frelick said. “I was just glad it got out.”
It was only the fourth homer of Frelick’s career against a left-handed pitcher, postseason included. His previous one against a lefty came on Opening Day in 2026. His regular-season OPS was .614, and even Frelick admitted he did not immediately know the ball had enough distance.
“Murph tells me I can’t hit a ball in the air to center because it will be an out for the rest of my life,” Frelick said. “I was excited to get back to the dugout and give him a big fist bump.”
Manager Pat Murphy has long needled Frelick about the limits of his power, but before the game he offered a much larger appraisal. Murphy called Frelick a fierce competitor and compared his self-belief to Dustin Pedroia, whom he coached at Arizona State.
“He has an edge because he believes in himself,” Murphy said. “Dustin had belief, swagger and an edge. When he played, it was as if he was saying, ‘I’m going to handle this.’”
Frelick said competition has always been his way of making up ground.
“I was not always the most naturally gifted athlete,” he said. “I felt like that was where I could find an edge, making everything a competition.”
The tie did not stand for long. Cooper Pratt delivered the go-ahead hit in the seventh, and Ashby closed out the final five outs to give the Brewers a 5-4 victory. Milwaukee is now two wins from the first World Series title in club history.
Frelick’s homer was one part of a taxing night for Tampa Bay’s staff. He produced four hard-hit balls, while the Brewers forced Rays pitchers to throw 184 pitches. It was the same steady, grinding style that has carried Milwaukee through October.
“It’s the next guy up,” Frelick said. “Our offense is built to chip away and wear pitchers down, and that can work well when you’re trying to come back.”
The Brewers have now erased deficits of at least four runs twice this postseason. Their other such rally came in the National League Championship Series clincher against the Dodgers. Only four other clubs had recorded two postseason wins after trailing by four or more in the same year.
For Frelick’s teammates, though, the night was less about the historical footnote than the player at the center of it. Jake Bauers said he had never seen Frelick hit a home run to straightaway center even during batting practice.
“To see him do that in a World Series game, I couldn’t be happier for him,” Bauers said. “I nearly started crying in the dugout. It was such a great moment for Sal.”
Ashby called it his favorite swing of the season.
“It is not even close,” Ashby said. “This club would not be what it is without him. He is the glue guy. He keeps this whole thing together.”
Frelick, naturally, did not linger in the moment. He described rounding the bases as a brief blackout, then reminded himself there were still three innings to play and the game was only tied.
That is the Frelick way: take the swing, take the lap, then get back in the dugout and get ready for the next inning.
