Sal Frelick tied the score with his first home run in three months, Cooper Pratt hit a go-ahead single in the seventh inning and the Milwaukee Brewers stunned the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 on Saturday night for a 2-0 World Series lead by overcoming a four-run deficit for the second time in the postseason.
Tampa Bay, who won the AL pennant by forcing opponents into mistakes, committed one error, made two other misplays that could have been charged as errors and had a runner thrown out at the plate.
Down 4-0 in the first inning, Milwaukee rallied for their seventh comeback win of this postseason. The Brewers also rebounded from a 4-0 deficit to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4 in Game 4 of the NL Championship Series, completing a four-game sweep.
After losing Friday’s opener 3-2, the Rays burst ahead against rookie Logan Henderson but the Brewers started to claw back with two runs in the bottom half against Tampa Bay ace Drew Rasmussen.
David Hamilton cut the deficit to 4-3 with a run-scoring grounder in the fourth and Frelick capped a nine-pitch at-bat against Ian Seymour in the sixth by driving a fastball over the center-field fence.
Quick Guide
World Series 2026
Show
Schedule
Best-of-seven series. All times US Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).
Fri 23 Oct Game 1: Milwaukee 3, Tampa Bay 2
Sat 24 Oct Game 2: Milwaukee 5, Tampa Bay 4
Mon 26 Oct Game 3: Milwaukee at Tampa Bay, 8pm (Fox)
Tue 27 Oct Game 4: Milwaukee at Tampa Bay, 8pm (Fox)
Wed 28 Oct Game 5: Milwaukee at Tampa Bay, 8pm* (Fox)
Fri 30 Oct Game 6: Tampa Bay at Milwaukee, 8pm* (Fox)
Sat 31 Oct Game 7: Tampa Bay at Milwaukee, 8pm* (Fox)
*-if necessary
How to watch
In the US, all World Series games will air on Fox and Fox Deportes, with streaming available through Fox One. In the UK, the series will be carried by TNT Sports. In Australia, fans can watch on ESPN, with streaming available through Disney+ and Kayo Sports.
Frelick had gone 103 plate appearances without a home run since his 11 July drive off Pittsburgh’s Braxton Ashcraft and had not gone deep against a left-handed pitcher since opening day against Tyler Gilbert of the Chicago White Sox. Frelick sped around the bases in 18.72 seconds, half the time of some theatrical trots this postseason.
Screaming fans at the second game of Milwaukee’s first World Series since 1982 were fired up during the seventh-inning stretch, dancing to the Beer Barrel Polka played by Mike Schneider, an accordionist from Clinton, Wisconsin.
Brice Turang doubled against losing pitcher Tyler Wells on the second pitch of the bottom half, advanced on Garrett Mitchell’s flyout to right and scored when Pratt, a 22-year-old who debuted in June, looped a sinker from Kevin Kelly into short right field.
Abner Uribe pitched one and one-third hitless innings for the win.
Jonny DeLuca doubled off Aaron Ashby starting the ninth, then Victor Mesa Jr struck out when he couldn’t check his swing. Pinch-hitter Ben Williamson’s groundout advanced the runner and Yandy DÃaz struck out when he couldn’t check his swing on a full-count pitch.
Ashby has three saves in the postseason while not allowing a run.
Milwaukee won their seventh straight game, becoming the fifth team to twice overcome four-run deficits for victories in a single postseason and the first since Philadelphia in 2022.
Game 3 of the matchup between teams seeking their first title is Monday night at Tropicana Field in St Petersburg, Florida, where the Brewers last played in 2023.
Of the 57 previous teams to take 2-0 World Series leads, 46 claimed the championship.
Tampa Bay took a 4-2 lead in the highest-scoring Series first inning since Game 4 in 1993 as the teams combined for seven hits, tying the most in an opening frame.
Still, Milwaukee improved to 13-0 in games started by Henderson, dating to his 2025 debut. He followed Jacob Misiorowski in the Brewers’ rotation, the first time teammates aged 24 or younger started the first two games of the Series since Cincinnati’s Gary Nolan and Ross Grimsley in 1972.
Henderson started on 11 days’ rest and struggled as the Rays fouled off 13 of 35 pitches in the first. He gave up four runs – three earned – in three innings.
Given an extra day of rest, Rasmussen allowed three runs and six hits over three and two-thirds innings in his shortest start since 9 July.
Pratt made his fourth error of the postseason at shortstop, the Brewers’ ninth in 10 games, bouncing his throw past first baseman Jake Bauers on a leadoff grounder by DÃaz. Chandler Simpson and Junior Caminero followed with RBI singles, and Liam Hicks hit a two-run homer.
Jackson Chourio and Bauers started the bottom half with singles and first baseman Jonathan Aranda allowed Contreras’ one-out foul pop to bounce out of his mitt near netting in front of the seats.
With Bauers running on a full-count pitch, Contreras bounced an RBI single to the left of second baseman Richie Palacios, who had taken a step toward the base. Mitchell’s two-out single cut the deficit to 4-2.
Hamilton hit an RBI grounder in the fourth that bounced under Aranda’s legs for an error.
Chourio threw out Hicks from left for the final out of the sixth when third base coach Brady Williams waved the slow-footed catcher to try to score from second on Mesa’s single.
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