Wednesday, 4 am.
They live.
The Tampa Bay Rays, down the last at-bat of the season, rallied to win their first game of the World Series, 4-3 in 12 innings over the Milwaukee Brewers..
Now, can they do it again?
And again?
And again?
Oh, the odds remain staggering against the Rays. For now, they'll have to be happy to still have a pulse. But they hit a little better, and they pitched a lot better, and they showed a little more life in winning their first Series game at Tropicana Field.
The Rays trailed 3-2 going into the bottom of the 12th. It didn't look promising. The Brewers' bullpen had owned the Rays' bats the entire series. Tampa Bay had a pair of leads during the game, but they had just five hits through the first 12 innings.
Then came the 12th. Milwaukee had just taken a 3-2 lead on Cooper Pratt's home run, and it seemed that only the celebrating by the Brewers was ahead.
But Junior Caminero reached on an error by Brewers' third baseman Joey Ortiz. Liam Hicks then singled to left.
Jonny DeLuca followed with a game-tying single. Chandler Simpson then singled.
That brought up Ben Williamson, who was only one-for-15 for the series. But he chopped the first pitch into right field, bringing in the winning run.
The Rays had gone ahead 1-0 in the second inning when Simpson doubled in DeLuca. They made it 2-1 when DeLuca brought in a run on a fielder's choice.
Ian Seymour (2-0) was the game winner, working one inning and giving up two hits and a run.
Simpson had two hits.
The Rays, naturally, are struggling to find pitchers with enough rest for tonight's game (8, Tropicana Field).
