Photo: Quintin Soloviev / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
The Milwaukee Brewers are one win from the first World Series championship in franchise history. Game 4 against the Tampa Bay Rays is tonight, Tuesday, October 27, at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, with first pitch at 8:00 p.m. ET on FOX.
Milwaukee leads the best-of-seven series 3-0 after Monday's 10-1 rout in Game 3. No team has ever come back from 3-0 down in the Fall Classic, and a Brewers win tonight would complete the first World Series sweep since 2012.
How the series got here
The first two games at American Family Field were nail-biters — a 3-2 opener and a 5-4 comeback win in Game 2. Game 3 was not. Milwaukee scored eight runs in the fifth inning, all of them with two outs, while Robert Gasser threw six scoreless innings; Tampa Bay's only run came in the ninth. Across three games the Rays have scored just seven runs.
William Contreras has an RBI in all three games and is 7-for-13 in the series, and Jackson Chourio went 4-for-5 in Game 3. FOX Sports names Contreras and Chourio its two leading World Series MVP candidates.
Tonight's pitching matchup
Tampa Bay turns to right-hander Griffin Jax in a win-or-go-home start. Jax went 8-10 with a 3.53 ERA in the regular season, but his postseason has been rockier — a 6.00 ERA across two appearances. He has not pitched in this series, and manager Kevin Cash is expected to go to his rested bullpen early if needed.
Milwaukee had not named a starter on Tuesday morning. Manager Pat Murphy is expected to run a bullpen game, with Shane Drohan, Dustin May and Kyle Harrison among the options. Because Game 3 was a blowout, the Brewers' top relievers — Abner Uribe, Aaron Ashby and Trevor Megill — are all fully rested, and Milwaukee's bullpen has allowed just two runs in 13 innings in this series.
What is at stake
For Milwaukee, tonight can end a 57-year wait for a title. For Tampa Bay, the math is brutal but simple: win tonight, or the season ends on its home field. The Rays were 55-26 at home this season, and they will need their quiet lineup — held to one extra-base hit from Yandy Diaz in Game 3 — to wake up against the best bullpen left standing in October.
Sources: FOX Sports; USA Today; TheSpread