Brewers overturn four-run deficit again to lead World Series 2-0

Milwaukee Brewers overturned a four-run deficit to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 on Saturday night, moving 2-0 ahead in the World Series, according to Guardian US Sport.

The Rays scored four times in the first inning off rookie starter Logan Henderson, but Milwaukee hit back with two runs in the bottom half against Tampa Bay ace Drew Rasmussen and never let the game get away from them again.

David Hamilton's run-scoring grounder in the fourth inning trimmed the gap to 4-3, before Sal Frelick levelled the score in the sixth with his first home run in three months, driving a fastball from Ian Seymour over the centre-field fence after a nine-pitch at-bat.

Cooper Pratt then delivered the decisive blow, a go-ahead single in the seventh that completed Milwaukee's seventh comeback win of this postseason.

The Brewers had produced an almost identical turnaround earlier in October, coming back from 4-0 down to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4 in Game 4 of the NL Championship Series as they completed a four-game sweep.

Tampa Bay's unravelling in Game 2 had little to do with Milwaukee's hitting alone. The Rays committed an error, were guilty of two further misplays that could easily have been scored as errors, and also had a runner thrown out at the plate.

Yahoo Sports detailed how those mistakes compounded through the game. In the first inning, with runners on first and third, second baseman Richie Palacios broke early to cover the base on a hit-and-run, leaving him out of position when William Contreras hit a bouncer that might otherwise have ended the inning as a double play; instead it rolled into centre field for an RBI single that began the comeback.

First baseman Jonathan Aranda also dropped a foul pop off Contreras earlier in that same at-bat, before later letting Hamilton's fourth-inning grounder slip between his legs for an error that allowed Milwaukee's third run to score.

Palacios, speaking on a video conference on Sunday reported by Yahoo Sports, acknowledged the frustration inside the Rays' camp. "Yeah, it's frustrating," he said, adding of the hit-and-run play, "Those are baseball plays — that's where luck is involved in it."

The defeat left Tampa Bay facing a 2-0 series deficit despite a regular season in which they won 105 games playing what Yahoo Sports described as smart, small-ball baseball, a style that has deserted them through two tight, one-run losses to Milwaukee.

Friday's series opener had already gone Milwaukee's way by the same 3-2 margin, with starter Jacob Misiorowski restricting the Rays to one run across five innings in front of a sell-out crowd of 43,250 at American Family Field, according to BBC Sport. Misiorowski, who led MLB with 252 strikeouts in the regular season, also threw the fastest pitch in World Series history at 103.5mph, eclipsing the previous record of 103.2mph set by Aroldis Chapman in 2016.

The series now shifts to Tropicana Field, where Game 3 is scheduled for Monday night as the Rays look to avoid falling three games behind in the best-of-seven contest.