ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays are, generally speaking, remarkably hard to beat at Tropicana Field and it’s not a recent phenomenon. Over their past 10 seasons at the oft-derided dome — 2025 excluded because of Hurricane Milton — the Rays are 450-308, an eye-popping .594 clip, compared to 386-373 on the road, a solid but comparatively pedestrian .509 rate. Credit for that where it’s primarily due — the Rays have consistently built really good teams.
Still, the quirks at the Trop — a white-canvas roof that can make tracking the baseball difficult; three rings hanging over the field that balls occasionally strike; lots of foul territory that includes both bullpens that fielders sometimes must work around — are also factors that have contributed to what’s become a clear home-field edge.
“There's no doubt when a pop-up goes up, it's a little different — you don't see that type of visual at any of the 29 other ballparks,” manager Kevin Cash said in trying to explain what makes the place difficult for opponents. “But I don't know. I don't have the best answer. I've heard Mark DeRosa talk about where everyone (staying at the hotel visiting clubs often use) goes and enjoys the breakfast burrito and has a cocktail, maybe one too many, after the game on a Friday night and they're not ready to go Saturday, Sunday. Hopefully that's taking place.”
That is very much not taking place with the Milwaukee Brewers and in a stunning Game 3 of what’s become a shockingly one-sided World Series, they continued to avalanche their way through the post-season, burying anything and everything in their path. A 10-1 romp Monday night, backboned by an eight-run fifth inning that wore the Rays down until they broke, left the National League champions a win away from their first-ever title.
Griffin Jax starts Game 4 on Tuesday for the Rays but given the way play has gone in the best-of-seven, it’s hard to imagine them even forcing a Game 5, let alone becoming the first team to rally from such a deficit in the Fall Classic. Of the 25 teams to have taken a 3-0 lead in the championship clash, 21 completed the sweep and the Brewers continue to rip through any and all barriers in their path.
“We kind of came into this game saying it's win or go home,” said Sal Frelick, who doubled home a run and scored during the decisive fifth inning, and stole a hit with a great catch in right field in the eighth. “That's the mindset, right? That’s what we want, the pressure to be on the line for our execution. That's what we want to feel. There shouldn't be any margins. There shouldn't be any looseness. It's laser-focused.
“I think it's going to be the same thing (Tuesday). It's great to get a win. You enjoy it for a few minutes after the game. Then you go back and it's reset mode.”
Added Jackson Chourio, again a catalyst with four hits, two runs scored and an RBI: “We still haven't achieved anything. So (Tuesday) the mentality remains the same. … We've sacrificed a lot to get to this point and we understand the job's not finished.”
Still, even Fastball Freddy, the Brewers' former ace Freddy Peralta who was ALCS MVP, couldn’t stem Milwaukee’s momentum, in trouble from the jump, grinding him in a 22-pitch first he narrowly escaped unscathed. Only Chandler Simpson charging 92 feet to snare a Frelick drive before he slammed face-first into the left-field wall, and Nick Fortes throwing out Garrett Mitchell trying to steal second, led to a zero in the second before RBI singles from Christian Yelich and William Contreras opened the scoring in the third.
Perlata’s best inning came during a three-up, three-down fourth but the game unravelled in the fifth, with two out and one on. A Yelich walk and Contreras infield single — after Yelich’s hustle negated a fielder’s choice out at second, with the help of replay, to extend the inning — ended his outing and Cam Booser was jumped immediately after.
Brice Turang ripped a 106 m.p.h. liner off Taylor Walls’ glove into centre field for a two-run single that made it 4-0. Mitchell then chopped a ball through the left side to make it 5-0 and Cooper Pratt turned it into a rout with a two-run double. A Frelick RBI double was the end for Booser and Cole Sulser served up an RBI single to David Hamilton and a run-scoring double to Chourio, his second hit of the inning and fourth of the game, before the inning mercifully wrapped up, a vocal contingent of Brewers fans breaking the otherwise stunned silence of 40,388 at the Trop.
“The whole game was changed when Yeli was safe at second,” said Brewers manager Pat Murphy. “That's just a hustle play. When your leader makes that play, that says it all. … That gives you another pitch, and that's sometimes all you need. Another pitch is enough. … That was just vintage leadership. Then Turang has a huge at-bat and opens the game up.”
Added Turang: “That was fun, moving the line, just trusting each other, going to the next guy, trusting the next guy to get the job done. That's what it really is, just trusting each other. Everyone wants to be the hero. When you try to do it, sometimes it doesn't work out.”
Robert Gasser, meanwhile, moved through the Rays lineup after allowing a Yandy Diaz leadoff single in the first, his only other blemish coming on a Victor Mesa Jr. walk to open the sixth. He finished his six shutout innings at a tidy 75 pitches and while Cash said his players “can pull some positives where we've been one swing of the bat away in the ninth inning of tying it or possibly taking the lead” in Games 1 and 2, there was nothing for them to take from a thorough drubbing that for the first time has their season on the brink.
“It's kind of that chip and a chair mentality,” Cash said of preparing for Tuesday. “We've got a seat at the table. We've got to do something with the chip. Obviously the only thing we can do is win (Game 4).”
A metaphor for their night and their series came in the eighth inning, when Rays second baseman Ben Williamson fouled a 97.1 m.p.h. sinker from Antonio Senzatela down off his foot and back up off his forehead. The infielder laughed afterwards and then dunked the next pitch down the right-field line, where Frelick laid out to scoop the ball before it touched turf.
The Brewers, on the other hand, brought in Brandon Woodruff, the veteran right-hander who’s battled through injuries since last making a post-season appearance in 2021 and suffered a shoulder injury in July that nearly ended his season, to pitch the ninth. He gave up an RBI double to Yandy Diaz before closing out the win, an outing that “means a ton.”
“It's crazy,” he said. “We've had a lot of playoff games and I haven't been able to participate in one since ‘21. What a better way to make your re-debut in the playoffs than in the World Series, which is pretty cool. I'll look back on it one day. We're focused on winning. Tonight was great. It was a great team win, but I know this group is ready for (Tuesday) and we're going to try to come in and finish this thing off.”
The whole sequence was representative of the way the Brewers, in every way possible, are simply powering through the path to hoisting the 2026 Commissioner’s Trophy.
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