Brewers Go for the Sweep in World Series Game 4 on Tuesday, With the Rays Turning to Griffin Jax
Milwaukee, up 3-0 after Monday's 10-1 rout, can win the franchise's first World Series title Tuesday night at Tropicana Field; Tampa Bay starts Griffin Jax and needs the kind of comeback only the 2004 Red Sox have ever pulled off.
The Milwaukee Brewers can finish the job Tuesday night. Game 4 of the World Series is set for Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, with Milwaukee — the majors' best team at 103 wins — one victory from the first championship in franchise history after Monday's 10-1 rout gave it a 3-0 series lead. Tampa Bay turns to right-hander Griffin Jax (0-1, 6.00 ERA this postseason) to keep the season alive; the Brewers had not announced a starter, and manager Pat Murphy is expected to lean on a bullpen that has allowed two runs in 13 innings in this series.
Monday's Game 3 turned on one inning. Milwaukee scored all eight of its fifth-inning runs with two outs — a World Series first — on a postseason-record seven straight hits after a forceout call at second was overturned on replay. Jackson Chourio went 4 for 5 and became the second-youngest player with four hits and a stolen base in a World Series game, behind only Ty Cobb in 1908. On the mound, rookie Robert Gasser faced the minimum through six innings of one-hit ball — the first starter to do that in a World Series game since Curt Schilling in 2001, and the first left-hander since Sandy Koufax in 1965 — while former Brewer Freddy Peralta took the loss for Tampa Bay, charged with five runs in 4 2/3 innings. Brandon Woodruff closed it out in the ninth, his first appearance in three and a half months after a shoulder injury.
History is not on Tampa Bay's side, and the Rays know it. Of the 43 previous teams to fall behind 3-0 in a best-of-seven postseason series, only the 2004 Boston Red Sox won four straight; of the 25 teams to lead a World Series 3-0, 21 finished the sweep. A Milwaukee win would also make the Brewers the first team to sweep both the League Championship Series and the World Series since the 1976 Cincinnati Reds. 'It's kind of that chip and a chair mentality,' Rays manager Kevin Cash said after Game 3, in wire reporting read by the Sports Desk. 'We've got a seat at the table. We've got to do something with the chip.' First pitch is 8 p.m. Eastern on FOX.
