Rays Stun Brewers With a 12th-Inning Rally to Win 4-3 and Force a World Series Game 5

The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 in Game 4 of the World Series at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. The win came from a string of hits in the 12th inning, and it kept the Rays from elimination and sent the series to a fifth game.

Late in the game Milwaukee stood just three outs from the first World Series title in its history. The Brewers, leading the series 3-0, had also moved ahead in the top of the 12th inning.

In the 12th, Brewers rookie Cooper Pratt hit a tiebreaking home run off Ian Seymour. Pratt, 22, who debuted in June, became the first rookie to hit a World Series extra-inning home run. His hit put the Brewers ahead 3-2 and sent their dugout into celebration.

The bottom of the inning brought a dramatic turn. Junior Caminero grounded to third, but third baseman Joey Ortiz bounced the throw and the ball glanced off first baseman Jake Bauers' mitt for an error. That mistake started the Rays' rally.

Liam Hicks, Jonny DeLuca, Chandler Simpson and pinch-hitter Ben Williamson then hit consecutive singles within a 15-pitch span against rookie Shane Drohan. Drohan, a 27-year-old left-hander, had not pitched since a one-inning start in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series on October 15.

DeLuca's single brought home Cedric Mullins, the pinch-runner for Caminero, to tie the score at 3. Simpson's single then loaded the bases, and the Brewers brought Sal Frelick in to form a five-man infield.

Williamson, who had been 1 for 15 in the postseason, hit a chopper on the game's 367th pitch that kicked up chalk from the foul line seven feet from home plate and bounded over Bauers. Nick Fortes crossed the plate with the winning run.

According to OptaSTATS, the Rays became the fourth team in World Series history to avoid elimination with an extra-inning comeback; the previous three — the 1912 Boston Red Sox, the 1986 New York Mets and the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals — all went on to win the title.

Earlier, Simpson hit an RBI double off Dustin May in the second inning, and the Brewers tied the game in the fourth on Frelick's single and Pratt's double. Caminero later scored on Hamilton's throwing error, and Hamilton himself homered, his second home run of the postseason. Six scoreless innings followed.

The game lasted four hours and 20 minutes and ended at 12:28 a.m. before a crowd of 40,514. It was the first World Series walk-off pinch hit in extra innings since Gene Larkin's single won Game 7 for Minnesota in 1991.

Caminero hurt his left foot but said he will definitely play in Game 5 on Wednesday night, also at Tropicana Field. Jacob Misiorowski is scheduled to start for the Brewers, while Rays manager Kevin Cash said he had not yet decided on his starter.

The Rays are just the fifth of 26 teams that fell behind 3-0 in the World Series to win Game 4, and the previous four all lost Game 5. The only team to rebound from 3-0 in any best-of-seven postseason series was the Boston Red Sox against the New York Yankees in the 2004 AL Championship Series.