The Tampa Bay Rays won the game that had been hanging over their season, beating the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 in extra innings in World Series Game 4 on Wednesday night in St. Petersburg, Fla. Ben Williamson delivered the hit that ended it, lining a single the other way in the 12th inning to bring home Nick Fortes and give the Rays their first win of the series.
That is why so many people are searching who won the Rays game last night: the answer was Tampa Bay, and the result kept the team alive after it entered the night down 3-0 in the World Series. The Rays had to go beyond nine innings to do it, and they did it with a plate appearance that turned on a Brewers error and a steady swing from Williamson when the game was at its tightest.
The numbers make the win feel even larger. Opta STATS said the Rays became only the fourth team in World Series history to avoid elimination with an extra-inning comeback. They trailed 3-2 going into the bottom of the 12th, then forced the issue when the Brewers’ error gave Tampa Bay enough room to load the bases before Williamson’s single pushed them over the line.
Williamson said the moment fit the way the Rays have carried themselves all series. He said it showed the resiliency of the group and added that fighting has been the motto through the full season and this matchup. Chandler Simpson sounded the same note, saying the team has a lot of fight and would keep going until the last inning, the last out, the last play and the last pitch.
But the win does not erase the size of the hole Tampa Bay climbed out of. The Rays still had been down 3-0 before Game 4, and the only MLB team ever to turn a 3-0 deficit into a series win was the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series in 2004. That is the barrier still sitting in front of Tampa Bay even after the rally, because the next game belongs to Jacob Misiorowski, who is set to take the mound for the Brewers in Game 5 after allowing one run on four hits in five innings when Milwaukee won Game 1.
Kevin Cash spoke after the win with Kevin Burkhadt, David Ortiz, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, but the larger story is simpler than the broadcast moment. The Rays bought themselves another day, another game and another chance to make the series matter. Whether they can turn one extra-inning escape into a real comeback is the question now, and Game 5 will answer it fast.
