MILWAUKEE (AP) — Four-run deficits don't discourage the Milwaukee Brewers this October, not with those orange Life Savers.
Sal Frelick and Cooper Pratt, two of the under-the-radar Brewers manager Pat Murphy thinks of with his nickname for less-appreciated candy, combined for a sweet World Series comeback.
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Frelick tied the score with his first home run in three months, Pratt hit a go-ahead single in the seventh inning to make up for his earlier error and the Brewers stunned the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 on Saturday night for a 2-0 World Series lead.
“I would think I’m in that orange Life Saver category,” Frelick said, turning to Pratt. “Do you? Maybe you’re a red.”
Down 4-0 in the first inning, Milwaukee rallied for its seventh comeback win among nine postseason victories. The Brewers also rebounded from a 4-0 deficit to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4 in Game 4 of the NL Championship Series, completing a four-game sweep.
Milwaukee has won seven straight games and became the fifth team to twice overcome four-run deficits for victories in a single postseason, the first since Philadelphia in 2022.
“They believe and they don’t give up,” Murphy said. “They just keep going.”
Tampa Bay first baseman Jonathan Aranda committed one error and misplayed a foul pop, left fielder Chandler Simpson dropped a flyball and slow-footed catcher Liam Hicks was thrown out at the plate by Brewers left fielder Jackson Chourio.
“We’ve had moments like these throughout the regular season and we’ve been able to flip the page,” Aranda said. “So we just have to do that here.”
Abner Uribe pitched 1 1/3 hitless innings for the win, and the game ended when Aaron Ashby struck out Yandy Díaz on a checked swing, stranding Jonny DeLuca at third after a leadoff double in the ninth.
Game 3 of the matchup between teams seeking their first title is Monday night at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Of the 57 previous teams to take 2-0 World Series leads, 46 claimed the championship.
“We got beaten in all phases of the game,” DeLuca said. “We love playing at the Trop. It’s a unique place.”
After losing Friday’s opener 3-2, the Rays burst ahead in the first against rookie Logan Henderson.
Pratt made his fourth error of the postseason at shortstop, the Brewers’ ninth in 10 games, bouncing his throw past first baseman Jake Bauers on Díaz's leadoff grounder. Simpson and Junior Caminero followed with RBI singles, and Liam Hicks hit a two-run homer.
Milwaukee started to claw back with two runs in the bottom half off Rays ace Drew Rasmussen.
Chourio and Bauers started with singles and Aranda allowed Contreras’ one-out foul pop to bounce out of his mitt near netting in front of the seats.
With Bauers running on a full-count pitch, Contreras bounced an RBI single to the left of second baseman Richie Palacios, who had taken a step toward the bag.
“It’s a huge at-bat," Murphy said. “That first inning meant something that we bounced back against a pitcher that good.”
Garrett Mitchell’s two-out single cut the deficit to 4-2 in the highest-scoring Series first inning since 1993’s Game 4. Hamilton hit an RBI grounder in the fourth that bounced under Aranda’s legs for an error.
Frelick capped a nine-pitch at-bat against Ian Seymour in the sixth by driving a fastball over the center-field fence. The 5-foot-9 No. 8 hitter sped around the bases in 18.72 seconds, half the time of some theatrical postseason trots.
“I don’t think he knows what it’s like to hit a home run to dead center, so I don’t think he knew if he got it or not,” Bauers said.
Frelick had gone 103 plate appearances without a home run since his July 11 drive off Pittsburgh’s Braxton Ashcraft and had not gone deep against a lefty pitcher since opening day against Tyler Gilbert of the Chicago White Sox.
“He’s got the `it factor,'” Murphy said before the game. “You think of Joe Montana. You think of people that have — Larry Bird — that have the it factor. I’m not saying he’s at that level of talent or has been in a position to do those things, but he has that `it factor.' He can take a team down the field.”
Caminero reacted by yelling at teammates in Tampa Bay’s dugout.
“Just trying to create some energy and get some life back into us,” he said through a translator.
One of the 12-year-old kid reporters from Wisconsin working the Series pointed out to Frelick that his home run caused Bernie Brewer, Milwaukee's mascot, to slide down his 75-foot slide beyond the left-field fence for the first time in World Series history.
“That’s really cool,” Frelick said. “I only made him go down four times this whole year.”
Screaming fans in the crowd of 43,245 at Milwaukee’s first World Series since 1982 were fired up during the seventh-inning stretch, dancing to the “Beer Barrel Polka” played by Mike Schneider, an accordionist from Clinton, Wisconsin.
“It’s mayhem, and I’ve never experienced anything like it before,” Frelick said. “It’s been motivating for all the players.”
Brice Turang doubled against losing pitcher Tyler Wells on the second pitch of the bottom half, advanced on Mitchell’s deep flyout to right and scored when Pratt looped a 2-2 sinker from Kevin Kelly into short right field.
“My heart was racing,” Pratt said. “You saw me chase the 1-1 pitch in the other batter’s box.”
A 22-year-old who debuted in June, Pratt has had a season of learning. Murphy removed him from an Aug. 25 game at the New York Mets when he didn't run hard on a bloop single.
Pratt thought of that as he spoke with Frelick.
“I sat there next to this guy, and he’s like, `Hey, man, I’ve been there, I’ve done that. I’ve been pulled a couple times. Just don’t let it happen again. There’s standards here,'” Pratt said.
Rays RHP Freddy Peralta, a two-time All-Star while pitching for the Brewers from 2018-25, starts Game 3. He was the AL Championship Series MVP and is 2-0 with a 1.08 ERA in three postseason starts and one relief appearance. He will be opposed by Brewers LHP Robert Gasser, who allowed one run over nine innings in his first two postseason starts.
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