Brewers Rout Rays 10-1, Move to Brink of First World Series Title

The Milwaukee Brewers put the Tampa Bay Rays one loss from elimination on Monday night, winning 10-1 to take a 3-0 lead in the World Series. Milwaukee can claim its first championship with a win Tuesday at Tropicana Field.

The Rays led the American League with 98 wins in the regular season, swept the Yankees in three games in the Division Series and beat the Guardians in six in the ALCS. Tampa Bay has never won a World Series in 29 seasons, losing to the Phillies in five games in 2008 and the Dodgers in six in 2020. The franchise began as the Seattle Pilots for one season in 1969, moved to Milwaukee and was renamed the Brewers in 1970. Milwaukee's only other World Series trip ended with a Game 7 loss to St. Louis in 1982.

Milwaukee led the majors with 103 wins, beat San Diego in four games in the NLDS and swept the Dodgers in the NLCS. The Brewers have won eight straight games this postseason, tying the record for a single postseason. Manager Pat Murphy is 67 years old.

Jackson Chourio went 4 for 5 with a double and a stolen base, becoming the second-youngest player with four hits and a stolen base in a World Series game, behind Ty Cobb in 1908. He has eight hits in three Series games. Brice Turang finished 3 for 5, as did William Contreras. Milwaukee collected 16 hits off Freddy Peralta and five relievers. Peralta, the ALCS MVP against Cleveland, was charged with five runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings against his former team.

Rookie left-hander Robert Gasser allowed one hit and faced the minimum 18 batters through six innings, the first starter to do that in a World Series game since Arizona's Curt Schilling in 2001 and the first left-hander since Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1965. He gave up a leadoff single to Yandy Díaz in the first, then retired 14 straight before Victor Mesa Jr. walked to open the Tampa Bay sixth. A caught stealing and a double play followed. Gasser has allowed one run in 15 innings over three starts, all on the road.

The Brewers broke it open in the fifth inning with eight runs, all with two outs, the first time a team has scored eight two-out runs in one inning in World Series history. Milwaukee put together seven straight hits during the rally, a postseason record. The sequence began with Chourio singling, stealing second and Christian Yelich walking. Peralta exited after Contreras loaded the bases. A forceout at second was overturned on replay review, and Turang followed with a two-run single that shortstop Taylor Walls could not short-hop. "Knife to the chest," Walls said. Garrett Mitchell added an RBI single, Cooper Pratt a two-run double and Sal Frelick an RBI double. Tampa Bay's Junior Caminero fielded a bouncer and threw to second for what appeared to be the final out of the inning before the replay review.

Brandon Woodruff pitched the ninth for Milwaukee, allowing one run and two hits in his first appearance in 3 1/2 months. He had been out with a shoulder injury originally thought to require surgery. Of the 43 previous major league teams that fell behind 3-0 in a best-of-seven postseason series, only the 2004 Boston Red Sox came back to win, taking four straight from the New York Yankees in the ALCS. Of the 25 previous teams to lead 3-0 in the World Series, 21 swept and four won in five games.

Game 4 is Tuesday night at Tropicana Field, where Griffin Jax starts for the Rays. The Brewers have not announced a starter. A Milwaukee win would make the Brewers the first team to sweep an LCS and World Series since the 1976 Cincinnati Reds. The sellout crowd of 40,388 at Tropicana Field included Brewers fans behind the visitors' dugout. "Normally it's 35,000 against nine, but tonight we had 20,000 people behind us," Gasser said. The stadium's roof was shredded by Hurricane Milton in October 2024 and required major renovations.