Latest / Tampa Bay Rays Weekly / Tampa Bay Rays Game Review — Oct 27, 2026: 4-3 vs Milwaukee Brewers
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hey, what's going on, everybody? This is Mike Michelson coming
- 0:03Speaker 1: to you after what might be the longest, most emotionally
- 0:06Speaker 1: exhausting four hours and 20 minutes of baseball I have
- 0:09Speaker 1: ever watched. I need a minute, maybe several minutes, to
- 0:12Speaker 1: process what we just witnessed here at Tropicana Field. The
- 0:16Speaker 1: Rays beat the Brewers 4-3 in 12 innings, and we
- 0:19Speaker 1: are not getting swept. If you're a Rays fan right now,
- 0:22Speaker 1: you should feel two things at once. Absolute delirious joy
- 0:25Speaker 1: because somehow, someway, we are not done yet. And a
- 0:29Speaker 1: cold knot in your stomach because we're down three games
- 0:32Speaker 1: to one and we still have to go back to
- 0:33Speaker 1: Milwaukee and win twice more. Those two feelings should be
- 0:37Speaker 1: sitting on your chest right now like a 250-pound man.
- 0:40Speaker 1: That's where we are. Let me walk you through how
- 0:43Speaker 1: we got here. For most of this game, it felt
- 0:46Speaker 1: like two teams trading haymakers in a boxing match where
- 0:48Speaker 1: nobody could land the knockout. Chandler Simpson doubled home Johnny
- 0:52Speaker 1: DeLuca in the second to give us a 1-0 lead.
- 0:55Speaker 1: And for a stretch, it felt like maybe the Rays
- 0:57Speaker 1: were going to take control of this series. But Milwaukee
- 1:00Speaker 1: kept answering. Cooper Pratt hit a double in the fourth
- 1:03Speaker 1: to tie it at one, and then we got the
- 1:05Speaker 1: lead back on a bizarre play. DeLuca hit a chopper
- 1:08Speaker 1: to third. David Hamilton fielded it and threw across the diamond.
- 1:13Speaker 1: And not only did Junior Caminero score from second, but
- 1:15Speaker 1: Hamilton also had a throwing error on the play. 2-1 Rays,
- 1:20Speaker 1: roof closed, crowd buzzing, and it felt like we might
- 1:22Speaker 1: just hold on. And Hamilton made up for that error
- 1:25Speaker 1: in the best possible way. Solo homer to right center
- 1:29Speaker 1: in the fifth 2-2 game tied. That's the kind of
- 1:32Speaker 1: power that can swing a series even when he's not
- 1:34Speaker 1: doing anything else on the scoreboard. From there, it became
- 1:38Speaker 1: a pitcher's duel in the traditional sense. Neither team could
- 1:42Speaker 1: do anything. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, nothing on
- 1:46Speaker 1: the board except zeroes. Griffin Jacks was out there giving
- 1:49Speaker 1: us four innings of work and relief, which is an
- 1:52Speaker 1: absurd workload for a reliever, and he held Milwaukee's hitters
- 1:55Speaker 1: in check for all but two of those frames, one homer,
- 1:58Speaker 1: three singles across four innings, six strikeouts. Jacks kept us
- 2:02Speaker 1: alive when most bullpens would have buckled under that kind
- 2:05Speaker 1: of demand. But here's the thing about baseball. The longer
- 2:09Speaker 1: a game goes, the more you're playing with fire, and
- 2:12Speaker 1: the 12th inning is where it all came to a head.
- 2:15Speaker 1: Top of the 12th. Cooper Pratt steps up against Ian
- 2:18Speaker 1: Seymour and absolutely demolishes a fly ball to left center
- 2:22Speaker 1: for a solo homer, 396 feet of pure disappointment. I
- 2:26Speaker 1: want to give credit where it's due because this kid
- 2:28Speaker 1: is doing something special in this series. He went four
- 2:31Speaker 1: for five tonight with the homer and two RBIs, and
- 2:34Speaker 1: he became the first rookie in MLB history to record
- 2:37Speaker 1: four hits in a potential World Series clincher. That's not
- 2:40Speaker 1: a small thing. The kid is 22 years old and
- 2:43Speaker 1: he's playing like he has been doing this for 15 seasons.
- 2:46Speaker 1: Give him his flowers, he earned them, even though I
- 2:48Speaker 1: absolutely hated every moment of watching him do it. So
- 2:52Speaker 1: we're down one going into the bottom of the 12th.
- 2:54Speaker 1: Tropicana Field is still full, 40,000 plus people refusing to
- 2:58Speaker 1: go home, and the Brewers' bullpen is running on fumes.
- 3:02Speaker 1: They had used every available arm they trusted, which is
- 3:05Speaker 1: how you get Shane Johan coming in to face the
- 3:07Speaker 1: Rays in a situation like this. Johan isn't the problem
- 3:11Speaker 1: by himself, but he got put in a spot with
- 3:13Speaker 1: no margin for error and zero support behind him. Sometimes
- 3:17Speaker 1: that's all it takes. Bottom of the 12th started with
- 3:20Speaker 1: Junior Caminero reaching on a throwing error by Joey Ortiz
- 3:24Speaker 1: off the arm of Antonio Sensatella. A bad hop, a
- 3:27Speaker 1: late throw across the diamond, and suddenly Caminero is on
- 3:30Speaker 1: base with nobody out. Now Drohan is on the mound
- 3:33Speaker 1: and the wheels come off. Singles start falling. Bases loaded.
- 3:37Speaker 1: Nobody out. This is the moment where the stadium transforms.
- 3:40Speaker 1: You can feel it in your bones. 40,000 people standing, screaming.
- 3:44Speaker 1: The sound filling that closed roof like a pressure cooker
- 3:47Speaker 1: building toward release. And Ben Williamson, pinch hitting, steps into
- 3:52Speaker 1: the box and smokes a ground ball through the right side.
- 3:54Speaker 1: Nick Fortes comes around to score. 4-3, walk off. Game over.
- 3:59Speaker 1: I watched that ball go through the infield and my
- 4:02Speaker 1: body left my chair in a way I cannot explain.
- 4:06Speaker 1: This is why we watch base. Four straight singles with
- 4:09Speaker 1: nobody out. Bases loaded. A pinch hitter delivering the final
- 4:12Speaker 1: blow in the 12th inning of Game 4 of the
- 4:15Speaker 1: World Series. It was cinematic and it was ours. Now
- 4:18Speaker 1: let me be honest with you about what this means.
- 4:20Speaker 1: We're still down 3-1. The Brewers have two chances to
- 4:23Speaker 1: close this out in Milwaukee. And they're a talented team
- 4:26Speaker 1: that has dominated this series for three games. Cooper Pratt
- 4:30Speaker 1: is not going to stop hitting. The Brewers rotation is
- 4:32Speaker 1: not going to stop pitching. We have no margin left.
- 4:36Speaker 1: Win in game five or go home and start thinking
- 4:38Speaker 1: about what went wrong in games one through three. That's
- 4:41Speaker 1: the situation. But here's what I love about where we
- 4:45Speaker 1: are right now. The Rays showed tonight that they have
- 4:48Speaker 1: fight in them. They showed that Griffin Jacks will give
- 4:51Speaker 1: you four innings when you need him. that Ian Seymour
- 4:54Speaker 1: can absorb a homer and still get the win because
- 4:57Speaker 1: the offense has his back, that Junior Caminero can draw
- 5:00Speaker 1: an error in the biggest moment of the game, and
- 5:03Speaker 1: that Ben Williamson, a player nobody was expecting to be
- 5:06Speaker 1: a World Series hero, can deliver when the bases are
- 5:09Speaker 1: loaded with the season on the line. We're alive, barely
- 5:12Speaker 1: by a thread, but alive. Next game is back in Milwaukee,
- 5:16Speaker 1: game five. We win or it's over, simple as that.
- 5:20Speaker 1: And for the first time this series, I think maybe
- 5:23Speaker 1: that simplicity is exactly what this team needs to believe
- 5:26Speaker 1: anything is still possible. See you tomorrow, everybody. I need
- 5:30Speaker 1: a nap.