Brewers Score Eight Two-Out Runs in Historic Fifth, Take 3-0 World Series Lead Over Rays

The inning that decided Game 3 of the World Series ran so long that it rewrote two records before it ended. On Monday night at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, the Brewers strung together seven consecutive hits, something no team had done in a World Series game. They scored eight runs with two outs in a single inning, which no team had done in the Series either. The result was a 10-1 win over the Rays and a 3-0 lead in the Series.

The inning ran twelve batters deep and produced eight hits, one walk and eight runs. The source describes it as the fifth inning in one place and the third in another, but the totals are the same either way. It began against Freddy Peralta, a former Brewer who has pitched brilliantly since being traded to the Rays and was their ALCS MVP against the Guardians. Milwaukee had already worn him down, starting with a 22-pitch first inning. Then Christian Yelich and William Contreras, who is hitting .419 in 11 games this postseason, delivered first-pitch RBI singles.

Yelich, the captain, did as much as anyone to keep the rally alive. He walked with two outs, then reached second base when Contreras hit an infield single to Rays third baseman Junior Caminero, who fielded it in the hole and threw to second. The umpires called Yelich out. The Brewers challenged and the call was overturned, loading the bases. Yelich had extended his secondary lead because the Rays' defense was playing back, and he went all-out on contact. Team owner Mark Attanasio, watching from a suite with a view straight down the line, said he thought Yelich might score on a double but never expected him to beat the ball to second. Jarrett Frelick's teammate-minded praise was pointed: Frelick called Yelich a 14-year veteran, with All-Star, MVP and Silver Slugger honors, who takes more pride in baserunning than anyone and sets the standard.

Once Peralta was gone, the hits kept coming. Against left-hander Cam Booser, Brice Turang scorched a two-run single off the glove of shortstop Taylor Walls, who called it a knife in the chest. Garrett Mitchell, Cooper Pratt and Frelick followed with run-scoring hits. Right-hander Cole Sulser came in and gave up run-scoring hits to David Hamilton and Jackson Chourio. It was Chourio's second hit of the inning and fourth of the game, one short of the World Series record shared by Paul Molitor (Game 1, 1982) and Albert Pujols (Game 3, 2011). He did not get a fifth. Late in the game, a "Let's go, Brewers" chant rose from the crowd in the eighth.

The approach is not new. Milwaukee won 103 games in the regular season, beat the Padres, baseball's hottest second-half team, in the NLDS, and swept the two-time defending champion Dodgers in the NLCS. In Game 2 in Milwaukee, they came back from 4-0 down to win 5-4, pulling 184 pitches out of Rays pitchers, the second-most any team has seen in a game this postseason. Frelick hit the only homer. During the season the Brewers ranked next to last in the majors in home runs but first in on-base percentage and second in runs scored, last in swing percentage and first in hitting to the opposite field.

The philosophy traces back to Lance Berkman, a former teammate of Brewers coach Lane, who described it in a video that landed on Lane's Instagram feed early last season. Berkman recalled an at-bat against John Smoltz in the playoffs in which he chased a couple of pitches and fell behind 0-2; he pictured himself in a pit and tried to drag the pitcher down with him. Lane shared the clip with Frelick, who asked himself how he could drag the pitcher to hell with him. Jake Bauers said the most satisfying thing is watching a teammate grind out such an at-bat while he is on deck, because the pitcher is likely gassed by the time he steps in. Yelich put it simply: players stay within themselves, take what the game gives them and pass it on.

The win matched a postseason record of eight straight victories, shared by the 2019 Nationals, 2014 Royals, 2005 White Sox and 2004 Red Sox. In best-of-seven series, teams up 3-0 have won 42 of 43 times, 33 of them by sweep. Only two teams have forced a Game 7 from there, and only the 2004 Red Sox, against the Yankees in the ALCS, completed the comeback. No team has reached Game 6 of a World Series down 3-0. A Game 4 win on Tuesday night would make Milwaukee the first team with nine straight postseason wins and would end the Series. It would also make the Brewers the first team to sweep both the LCS and the World Series since the LCS went to seven games in 1985.