Tampa Bay refused to go quietly, and now the World Series has a Game 5. The Rays beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 in 12 innings on Tuesday night at Tropicana Field, surviving elimination after trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the 12th and winning on Ben Williamson’s walk off hit to right field. Milwaukee still leads the series 3-1 and still needs only one more win for the first championship in franchise history, but the sweep is gone, and the Rays have given themselves one more night to believe.
The ending was as wild as the scoreline suggests. Milwaukee rookie Cooper Pratt hit a solo home run in the top of the 12th to put the Brewers ahead, his fourth hit of the night, and for a moment it looked like the celebration would start in St. Petersburg. Tampa Bay answered immediately. Junior Caminero reached base on a throwing error to open the bottom half, Jonny DeLuca singled up the middle to tie the game, Chandler Simpson singled to load the bases, and Williamson delivered the hit that ended it, scoring the winning run for a 4-3 victory.
Simpson and the refusal to fold
Simpson, the speedy left fielder who has become one of the stories of this postseason, summed up the Rays after the game in words that will travel well beyond Florida. Speaking to television after the win, he said the team would keep fighting to the last inning, the last out, the last player and the last pitch, and that was what it had done on Tuesday night. It was a fitting line from a player whose own season tells the same story. Simpson, 25, was demoted to Triple-A last season after being judged a defensive liability, yet he finished fourth in the major leagues with a .306 batting average this year and is now a Gold Glove finalist.
His Game 4 contribution went beyond the 12th inning single. Simpson went 3 for 5 with an RBI double, and earlier in the game he made an impressive catch that denied Garrett Mitchell a potential go-ahead RBI in the ninth. He was also caught stealing once, a reminder that his game is built on aggression and that aggression sometimes costs a team. On Tuesday night, the balance fell Tampa Bay’s way, and the Rays lived to play another game.
What Game 5 now means
History still leans heavily toward Milwaukee. Reports note that Tampa Bay became only the fifth team in World Series history to win Game 4 after falling behind 3-0, and that none of the previous four went on to win Game 5. That is the mountain the Rays must climb on Wednesday night, again at Tropicana Field, when the Brewers get a second chance to clinch. Reports of the comeback also underlined how long the game had been scoreless, with 11 innings passing without a run after the fifth before the 12th inning drama.
For Milwaukee, the task is to treat Game 4 as a missed opportunity rather than a turning point. The Brewers dominated Milwaukee’s Game 3 rout only a night earlier, and their bullpen had carried them through most of October. One bad inning, even one as painful as the bottom of the 12th, does not erase a 3-1 lead. For Tampa Bay, the task is simpler and harder at the same time: win one more game, then worry about the next one. Simpson’s message suggests the Rays intend to do exactly that, one pitch at a time.
