Brewers rout Rays, move one win from first World Series title

The Milwaukee Brewers are one win from their first World Series championship after an eight-run fifth inning carried them to a 10-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday night.

Jackson Chourio had four hits, Brice Turang delivered a two-run single and rookie left-hander Robert Gasser faced the minimum 18 batters through six innings. Milwaukee leads the best-of-seven series 3-0, with Game 4 scheduled for Tuesday night at Tropicana Field.

The first two games in Milwaukee were decided by one run apiece. This time, the Brewers broke it open with a postseason-record seven consecutive hits with two outs in the fifth. According to NPR, it was the first time a team scored eight runs with two outs in a World Series inning.

Chourio opened the rally with a one-out single and stole second. Christian Yelich walked, and William Contreras reached on an infield single after a replay review overturned a forceout call at second, loading the bases and ending former Brewer Freddy Peralta’s outing.

Turang then lined a ball off shortstop Taylor Walls’ glove and into shallow center field for a two-run single. “Knife to the chest,” Walls said, according to NPR.

Garrett Mitchell added an RBI single, Cooper Pratt a two-run double and Sal Frelick a run-scoring double. David Hamilton singled in another run before Chourio capped the inning with an RBI double. Peralta, the American League Championship Series MVP, was charged with five runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings.

Chourio finished 4 for 5 with a double, becoming the second-youngest player to collect four hits and a stolen base in a World Series game, behind Ty Cobb in 1908. Contreras and Turang each went 3 for 5, according to NPR, and Milwaukee finished with 16 hits. The Brewers have won eight straight postseason games, tying the record for a single postseason.

“He was tremendous. Locked in. Gives us a big lift,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said of Chourio, according to NPR.

Gasser allowed a leadoff single to Yandy Díaz in the first, then retired 14 straight batters before walking Victor Mesa Jr. to open the sixth. A caught stealing and a double play helped him face the minimum through six innings. He was the first World Series starter to do that since Curt Schilling in 2001, and the first left-hander since Sandy Koufax in 1965.

The Rays, who led the American League with 98 regular-season wins, now face a steep challenge: Of the 43 previous major league teams to trail 3-0 in a best-of-seven postseason series, only the 2004 Boston Red Sox came back to win. “Obviously the only thing we can do is win tomorrow,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said, according to NPR.

Milwaukee led the majors with 103 regular-season wins and swept the Dodgers in the NL Championship Series. The franchise’s only previous World Series appearance ended in a Game 7 loss to St. Louis in 1982. Tampa Bay has also never won a World Series; its previous appearances ended in losses in 2008 and 2020.

Griffin Jax is scheduled to start Game 4 for the Rays. Milwaukee had not announced its starter, NPR reported.