ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – James Shields was the last Tampa Rays pitcher to win a World Series game at Tropicana Field, in 2008. He still is. And although his otherwise jubilantly received ceremonial first pitch before Game 3 on Monday made for a humorous moment in realtime, it may come to symbolize a third World Series gone absolutely awry.
After taking the ball from Joe Maddon, his manager in 2008, with whatever percentage of the crowd Rays fans constituted roaring, Shields missed home plate and ceremonial catcher Jonathan Aranda, one of the Rays best hitters who was out of the lineup because of analytics, and nearly hit the team’s unofficial mascot, DJ Kitty.
It was good for a laugh, for a while, but the relentless Brewers soon had Rays fans stone-faced and silent after a 10-1 win that put Milwaukee one win from a sweep and its first World Series title in team history.
All the Rays subplots failed while the Brewers’ were expounded upon. A Tampa Bay team that ground and scratched and harassed its way to 98 regular season wins – the best in the American League –, and deposed the Yankees and Guardians in the playoffs – were out-hit 16-3. A team that caught and threw the ball efficiently didn’t for the second consecutive game.
Their lightning bolt trade deadline acquisition, Freddy Peralta, was worn out by his original MLB team.
Budding Rays superstar third baseman Junior Caminero, two days removed from a high-profile hissy in the dugout in Game 2, caused by his agitation over defensive mistakes, made the mistake that opened the spigot in an eight-run fifth inning and then chucked another throw away for an error later in the game. He also went 0-for-3.
Auditing the Brewers’ performance is markedly more simple. So is projecting it into a plan for winning once more. They just did Brewers stuff – at a very high volume on Monday – proving relentless at the plate, aggressive on the basepaths and unforgiving when presented an opportunity.
Such was the case in the fifth, when with two outs and two on, Caminero scooped a William Contreras grounder and opted to fire to second for a force on the speedy Christian Yelich. Even with catcher William Contreras, running at catcher speed, just a few strides out of the home plate circle. An original out call at second was reversed, and six consecutive Brewers delivered run-scoring hits to explode a 2-0 lead to 10-0.
“[Caminero] might have had a play at Contreras getting down the first base line. [I] don’t fault Cammy at all,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “That ball is a hard hit ground ball, topspin, took him almost back to the grass or the turf. [I] understood why he thought the best avenue was to go to second. But it was a good job by, I think, Yelich busting it to second base and getting there safe.
“It’s easy to go back and look at. I’ve got the advantage of an iPad. Cammy doesn’t have that. So he’s doing everything he can to make the play right then and the best decision at that moment.”
For Brewers manager Pat Murphy, the play wasn’t about a Caminero decision, but a trait of his roster.
“The whole game was changed when Yeli was safe at second. That’s just a hustle play. When your leader makes that play, that says it all,” he said. “The game was changed because he did a little thing that anybody can do. The first baseman with the right-handed hitter played way off. Yeli took advantage of that, got as far out as he could, safe at second. That’s a game-changer right there.
“That gives you another pitch, and that’s sometimes all you need.”
Meanwhile, Milwaukee’s Robert Gasser kept mowing down Rays hitters who failed to produce a run for 16 consecutive innings until the ninth. That unfortunate streak included not being able to buttress a 4-0 first-inning lead in a 5-4 Game 2 loss.
And with eight hits in the World Series, left fielder Jackson Chourio has become the breakout star of the World Series from the lead-off spot ahead of Yelich (.314) and Contreras (.319).
Now the Brewers have transformed from relentless to feeling inevitable.
So now what?
The Rays must be left to wonder if their style of play is conducive to winning four consecutively against the team that led MLB with 103 regular-season wins and swept the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers out of the National League Championship Series. And before that took three of four to oust San Diego in the Division Series.
Can peskiness do that?
Cash was left with poker analogies when asked how the Rays move on to the next one while cognizant they need the next four.
“It’s kind of that chip and chair mentality,” he said. “We’ve got a seat at the table. We’ve got to do something with the chip. Obviously, all we can do is win tomorrow.”
Milwaukee ace Jacob Misiorowski, who is in line to pitch a very theoretical Game 5, said the Brewers won’t ruminate on what Tuesday could bring, namely a first World Series title.
“I think it sunk in from the beginning of the first game. You realize you were doing something,” he said. “You’re in a position that something special could happen. But no, I mean, I think it’s still the same thought of we still have one more to go.”
