Rays put on the brink of World Series flop by Brewers’ historic 8-run, 2-out surge

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Taylor Walls stabbed at Brice Turang’s sharp grounder and felt it glance off his glove.

“Knife in the chest,” the Tampa Bay Rays shortstop said.

Tampa Bay’s first World Series game at Tropicana Field in 18 years turned into a record-setter for Brewers batters.

Milwaukee became the first team to score eight runs with two outs in a World Series inning, routing the Rays 10-1 on Monday night to take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Turang’s two-run single was the second of a postseason-record seven straight two-out hits against starter Freddy Peralta and relievers Cam Booser and Cole Sulser.

Milwaukee turned a 2-0 lead into a 7-0 advantage with hits on three straight pitches by Turang, Garrett Mitchell and Cooper Pratt. The Brewers went on to score eight runs in a 17-pitch span to open a 10-run advantage. Jackson Chourio had two hits in the inning, part of his four-hit night.

“Worst feeling in the world, feeling like you let your team down,” a downcast Booser said in the quiet Tampa Bay clubhouse.

Among 25 previous teams that fell behind 3-0 in a World Series, 21 were swept and four lost in five games. Of 43 teams to trail 3-0 in any best-of-seven postseason matchup, only the Boston Red Sox against the New York Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series rebounded to win.

“It’s kind of that chip and a chair mentality,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We’ve got a seat at the table. We’ve got to do something with the chip. Obviously the only thing we can do is win tomorrow.”

Coming off a pair of one-run wins at American Family Field, the Brewers took a 2-0 lead in the third when Christian Yelich and William Contreras hit opposite-field, one-out RBI singles on consecutive pitches.

Chourio singled with one out in the fifth and Christian Yelich walked with two outs. Contreras grounded to third and Junior Caminero threw to second as umpire Dan Bellino signaled a forceout. But the call was reversed in the New York replay operations center by umpire Alfonso Márquez, giving Contreras an infield single that loaded the bases.

Caminero may have had a better chance of throwing out Contreras at first base.

“I knew the speed at first base wasn’t necessarily the best in that situation,” Caminero said through a translator. “So going into the moment, once I got the groundball I was going to second base all the way.”

Booser relieved and Turang’s 106 mph one-hopper hit the dirt just past the infield grass, bounced off Walls’ glove and into short center field.

“I’d like to have that one back. Those are plays that you’d like to make, that you expect to make even though they may be on the tougher end,” Walls said. “That was pretty much the turning point in the game there.”

Walls dropped to a knee and held out his glove at shoulder level trying to make what would have been an excellent stop, then tumbled as the ball bounced past him.

“You just try to get your eyes as close to where the ball is going to be, the height of the hop,” he said. “Ideally, I guess if you want to talk about fractions, if you can get your glove behind the ball and work more backwards you have a better chance to make the play than if you’re slightly above it having to kind of work down a little bit, which is where I kind of felt I was.”

Mitchell grounded an opposite-field RBI single through the shortstop hole vacated with Walls shifted toward second for the left-handed batter. Pratt followed with a smash off the glove of a diving Caminero that rolled into the left-field corner for a two-run double.

Sal Frelick sliced an opposite-field double that hit the wall on a hop in the left-field corner, scoring Pratt and chasing Booser.

David Hamilton greeted Sulser by lining a shoulder-high fastball into center for a run-scoring single and a 9-0 lead. Chourio then lofted an opposite-field RBI double that hit just in front of the warning track.

Boston set the previous Series high of seven runs with two outs in the fifth inning of the 2007 opener against Colorado, a feat matched three years later by San Francisco in the eighth inning of Game 2 against Texas, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Los Angeles Dodgers were the only prior team with eight two-out runs in any postseason inning, scoring 10 with two outs in the first inning of Game 3 against Atlanta in the 2020 NL Championship Series.

Griffin Jax said he’ll put the Series deficit out of his mind when he starts Game 4 on Tuesday.

“We just got our butts kicked tonight. I don’t think there’s really much else to say,” Jax explained. “We’ll just kind of forget it and try to sleep it off and come back tomorrow ready to fight.”

___

This story has been corrected to note that Turang’s two-run single was the second of seven straight two-out hits, and that the Dodgers played Atlanta in the 2020 NLCS.

___

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Ronald Blum, The Associated Press