Brewers – 002 080 000 – 10 16 0
Rays – 000 000 001 – 1 3 1
The city of Milwaukee is on the brink of celebrating its first World Series championship in 57 years of Brewers baseball. A historic offensive explosion in the fifth inning on Monday, in which the Brewers scored eight runs with two outs, and set a World Series record with seven consecutive batters getting hits, led to a 10-1 rout for the NL champs, who now lead the World Series 3-0.
It's not completely dark for the Rays, but as the Bard says, it's getting there. No team has come back from 0-3 in a World Series. In fact, no team down 0-3 has made it past Game 5.
In all best-of-seven series, teams up 3-0 have won the series 42 of 43 times (98%), with 33 of those 43 series being four-game sweeps. The 2004 Boston Red Sox are the only team to go from 0-3 to 4-3 – and that happened in the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees. (And the 2026 Rays are not the 2004 Red Sox.)
The Brewers are trying to become the first team (since the LCS round expanded to seven games in 1985) to sweep both the LCS and the World Series. (The 1976 Reds went 7-0 in the postseason, beating the Pirates in three straight for the NL pennant and sweeping the MFY in the World Series.)
The Brewers have won eight consecutive postseason games, tied for the longest streak in a single postseason with the 2004 Red Sox, the 2005 White Sox, the 2014 Royals, and the 2019 Nationals.
The Brewers are also the seventh World Series team to win each of the first three games while hitting only one home run. Among the other six teams is the 2007 Red Sox.
The eight runs scored with two outs are most in an inning in World Series history and second-most in any postseason inning.
Milwaukee led 2-0 on run-scoring singles in the third from Christian Yelich and William Contreras (who had three hits on Monday (one of three Brewers with as many or more hits on Monday than the entire Rays team) and is 10-for-18 in the WS).
Jackson Chourio (4-for-5 in G3, 12-for-19 overall) singled with one out in the fifth and stole second before Yelich walked. Rays starter Freddie Peralta fell behind Contreras 3-0, then got a called strike, before Contreras grounded to the left side. Third baseman Junior Caminero moved in front of shortstop Taylor "Sugar" Walls to cut off the ball. The way Caminero was positioned and moving, throwing to second (the closest base) was a natural choice – and that's what he did. However, he probably could have quickly reoriented himself and thrown Contreras out at first.
Yelich slid into second just before Ben Williamson caught the ball. Williamson did not reach for the ball or stretch out like a first baseman to receive the throw, which might have cost him an out. Second base umpire Dan Bellino was far away from the base when the ball was hit and he barely made an attempt to get any closer (see snip 3, below). Bellino was comically (and unprofessionally) out of position to make the call – and, not unexpectedly, he made the wrong call. He called the runner out, and Yelich immediately signaled to the visiting dugout that a challenge should be made. The replay showed the play was not close, relatively speaking. Here are some screenshots, with Bellino acting like he was wandering alone along a forest trail, enjoying the sunshine and fresh air, without a thought in his head.
In an instant, the entire situation was rearranged. Bellino's blown call was overturned, Yelich was safe, Contreras was given a single, the bases were loaded with Brewers, and Peralta – rather than being out of the inning – was out of the game (4.2-7-5-3-4, 87). Cam Booser took over on the mound. Booser faced four batters – and likely needed a drink or five after he was back in the safety of the dugout.
Brice Turang lined a 2-2 pitch up the middle that Walls tried to snare on a short hop. The ball "ate him up", knocking him back, and then rolling into short center. Two runs scored and the Brewers led 4-0. Garrett Mitchell, with the Rays infield moved around to the right, grounded a first-pitch single through the spot vacated by the shortstop and into left for another run (5-0). Cooper Pratt ripped the first pitch he saw down the left field line for a double – and two more runs (7-0). Booser was in danger of walking Sal Frelick before the Milwaukee outfielder cranked a 3-1 pitch to the opposite field that fell near the left field line just shy of the warning track for a double and another run (8-0). That was it for Booser (0-4-4-0-0, 12) – now it was Cole Sulser's turn. David Hamilton, who led off the inning with a high liner to third that Caminero leapt to snag, cracked a single to center. There was no play at the plate (9-0). Chourio doubled to the wall in right-center for the eighth run of the inning (10-0). Jake Bauers ended up being the guy who made both the second and third outs of the inning. He flied to left and the Rays were finally allowed to get off the field.
Jackson Chourio is the first player in World Series history with two hits and a stolen base in an inning. Only two other players have done that in the postseason: Rickey Henderson (1990 ALCS G1, 9th inning) and Chuck Knoblauch (2000 ALDS G5, 1st inning). There are 47 instances in postseason history of a player having two hits in an inning, but Chourio is the only player to do it twice (2025 NLDS G1, 1st inning).
Most postseason hits before turning 23
Andruw Jones: 30 (45 games)
Jackson Chourio: 29 (23 games)
Most postseason RBI before turning 23
Jackson Chourio: 20
Andruw Jones: 17
The Brewers did not score any more runs, but they left runners at the corners in the sixth and at first and second in the ninth.
The Rays avoided a shutout by getting one run in the bottom of the ninth off Brandon Woodruff, who was pitching in his first game since July 4. The 33-year-old right-hander had been penciled in as an opener for Game 4, but he got the call late in Game 3. Woodruff needed one pitch to get one out before Cedric Mullins singled and took second on indifference. Woodruff struck out Jorge Mateo before Diaz doubled. (In a supreme dick move, Diaz cockily flipped his bat after lining the 3-2 pitch into the left-center field gap – yes, he thought it was appropriate to fuckin showboat with his team down by ten runs and one out away from an 0-3 WS hole that no team has ever climbed out of. The move should have embarrassed him later, if he gave it a thought, which I'm sure he did not.)
"Big Woo" is the longest-tenured player on the Brewers roster, having made his major league debut in August 2017 – with 6.1 shutout innings aganst the Rays at Tropicana Field! He missed all of 2024 and half of 2025 after shoulder surgery. Right shoulder inflammation sidelined him this summer and he opted to not have additional surgery. Although he did not pitch in any rehab games, he was added to the World Series roster. Throwing a shutout inning would have been better, but I suspect Woodruff doesn't give a shit about that.
Speaking of shit, Nic Lentz was the home plate umpire.
Each catcher challeged four ball-strike calls, and each of them could have correctly challenged several more. Contreras, who led all catchers in challenges (185) and highest overturned percentage (57%), challenged four of Lentz's calls – all four were overturned. Nick Fortes of the Rays won three of his four challenges. Toss in the blown pitch calls that were not challenged and Bellino's blown call at second (not to mention his indifference to being out of position to make the call) and it was a shameful night for the umps. A commissioner who actually cared about (or even bothered to consider) the integrity of the game and the appearance of professionalism in the most important (and most widely-watched) games of the season would have phoned Bellino immediately after the game and demanded an explanation for his nonchalance. I'm confident that Manfred made no such call. He probably wasn't even watching the game.
After three games, I realize that my initial attitude after Game 1 about Dave Flemming* and Ryan Spilborghs was brought on by the effects (the contact high, as it were) of hearing a Smoltz-free game. Both international announcers have been fairly amatuerish in Games 2 and 3 – they likely were in Game 1, as well. It's well nigh impossible to talk about a baseball game for three hours without saying something nonsensical – and achieving the same level of excitement for both teams over the course of those three hours is a delicate balancing act that takes years to hone. Flemming has called Giants games for 23 years, in addition to other sports (football, basketball, golf). He's been a professional announcer for more than half his life, so there's really no excuse for his flights of hyperbole or his ongoing disbelief/amazement at things that, while uncommon, are far from rare in baseball. His gushing incredulity over the Brewers' comeback in Game 2 left me with the impression that he has never seen a team rally from four runs down with nine innings of batting to go – no, forget never seen it, never even considered such a thing was possible.
In the top of the fifth, before the Brewers bats went wild, when Tampa Bay was down by two runs and had two outs in the fifth, Flemming stated: "It feels like the Rays' season is on the line right here." Which was a preposterous thing to say. Meaning if the Rays did not get the third out immediately, if they had allowed a run and trailed 3-0 (with five innings left) in Game 3, they had no hope, no chance. Even if that was somehow true, a professional announcer knows not to say it. As the Brewers were increasing their lead with every batter, Spilly said this was "the nail in the [Rays'] coffin". A couple of batters later, one of them remarked that his "jaw just hit the floor" over the awesomeness of the Brewers.
In the top of the ninth inning, Fortes challenged a "ball" call by Lentz with Hamilton at the plate. It was overturned and ruled a strike. Spilborghs rushed to defend the indefensible. Referring to the eight pitch challenges by the catchers, he said: "That's not a knock on Lentz . . ." – at which point both Laura and I yelled in unison at the TV, "Yes, it is!!" The rest of Spilborghs' sentence: ". . . those pitches are so close to the strike zone." Yeah. They were. That's why it's important to make sure those pitches are called correctly. It's a job that is impossible for human eyes to accurately accomplish.
This current system, of each team having two challenges per game, losing a challenge only if the initial call is confirmed, is like the suburbs of situations. The suburbs are horrible because they offer none of the benefits of living either in a city or in a rural area; all they have is the worst qualities of both places. In this case, a fan can clearly see how using ABS for every pitch would make rulings on balls and strikes fair for both teams for the first time in 150 years of baseball history and yet she is still left steaming over all of the blown calls that are not challenged. Jesus, my disgust and contempt for Rob Manfred (and to a lesser extent, the players' union, because they have signed off on all the gimmicky bullshit) is so all-encompassing, when I contemplate its magnitude, my jaw hits the floor.
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