The Rays beat Brewers 4-3 in 12 innings on Tuesday night, October 27, 2026, at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the Tampa Bay Rays are still alive in the World Series. Pinch hitter Ben Williamson singled to right field with the bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the 12th, scoring pinch runner Nick Fortes and completing a two-run rally that denied Milwaukee a sweep and its first World Series championship — at least for one more night. Milwaukee still leads the best-of-seven series 3-1.
The ending was as sudden as it was improbable. Milwaukee had just taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the 12th, when rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt, who finished with four hits, hit a solo home run to left-center field. Three outs from a title, the Brewers instead watched the Rays send five straight batters to the plate without an out being recorded in the bottom of the inning.
How the Rays beat Brewers 4-3 in the 12th inning
The rally started with a mistake Tampa Bay could not afford to waste. Junior Caminero reached first base on a throwing error by Milwaukee third baseman Joey Ortiz, and the Brewers replaced Antonio Senzatela with reliever Shane Drohan. Liam Hicks then singled to left field, putting runners on the corners, and Caminero was replaced by pinch runner Cedric Mullins at third base.
Jonny DeLuca followed with a single up the middle past a drawn-in infield, scoring Mullins to tie the game 3-3. Chandler Simpson then singled to center field to load the bases, still with nobody out, and Williamson ended it with a ground ball to right field. Drohan faced four batters and did not record an out. Ian Seymour earned the win for Tampa Bay after allowing Pratt’s home run, while Drohan took the loss.
Williamson said afterward, in comments reported by AFP, that the comeback showed the resilience of the group: “We continue to fight and that’s been the motto this series and this whole season.”
How the game reached 2-2
Tampa Bay struck first in the second inning. DeLuca reached on a fielder’s choice and scored on Simpson’s RBI double into the right-field corner. Milwaukee answered in the fourth, when Sal Frelick singled with two outs and scored on Pratt’s RBI double into the left-field corner to tie the game 1-1.
The Rays went back in front in the bottom of the fourth, when Caminero scored from second after a throw by Milwaukee third baseman David Hamilton sailed off target. Hamilton made up for the miscue in the next inning, leading off the fifth with a home run to right-center field off Tampa Bay starter Griffin Jax to tie the game 2-2 and chase Jax from the game.
From there, the bullpens took over. Simpson helped keep the game tied with a leaping catch at the wall in the ninth inning, and neither team scored again until the 12th. Milwaukee starter Dustin May allowed two runs in three innings, according to Sports Illustrated’s recap, but the early scoring gave way to a long, scoreless stretch that set up the late drama.
Pratt and Chourio still gave Milwaukee a night to remember
Even in defeat, Milwaukee’s young core produced numbers that will stand up in World Series history. Pratt finished 4-for-5 with a double, a home run and two RBIs, capping his four-hit night with the go-ahead homer in the 12th. Jackson Chourio added two hits, giving him 10 hits in the first four games of the series — a total Reuters noted had previously been reached in a World Series only by Babe Ruth, in 1928.
That context matters because it shows how close Milwaukee came. The Brewers had won eight straight postseason games before Tuesday night, and a win would have completed a sweep and the first championship in franchise history. Instead, their first loss since October 6, according to Sports Illustrated, came in the cruelest way a baseball game can end: with the title three outs away.
Analysis: what Game 4 changes, and what it does not
This is a clearly labeled analysis section, not a report of a new result. Game 4 changes the mood of the series more than the math. Milwaukee still needs only one win, and it still has three chances to get it. Tampa Bay still needs three straight wins, including two in Milwaukee if the series goes that far, and no team has ever won a World Series after trailing 3-0.
What the Rays did buy is time and belief. A sweep would have ended the season on a night when Milwaukee’s traveling fans were ready to celebrate. Instead, Tampa Bay returns to the same ballpark on Wednesday night with a win behind it, a crowd that has just seen its team refuse to go away, and a Brewers bullpen that had to absorb a loss it seemed to have avoided. That does not make Tampa Bay the favorite. It does make Game 5 a real game rather than a formality, and in a short series, that shift in pressure is worth something.
The concern for Tampa Bay is how it got there. The Rays needed an error, four straight singles against a reliever who could not record an out, and a bases-loaded walk-off to win a game in which they were tied from the fifth inning onward. Repeating that formula is not a plan. Milwaukee, meanwhile, can reasonably point to the same facts in reverse: it led in the 12th, it still leads the series, and one clean win ends it.
What to watch next
Game 5 is Wednesday, October 28, 2026, at 8 p.m. ET at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, televised on FOX. A Milwaukee win gives the Brewers their first World Series title. A Tampa Bay win sends the series back to Milwaukee for Game 6 on Friday, October 30, with a Game 7, if necessary, on Saturday, October 31.
Watch Tampa Bay’s early offense and Milwaukee’s response to a gut-punch loss. If the Rays score first again, the home crowd and the memory of the 12th inning will be hard for Milwaukee to quiet. If the Brewers score early, they can show that Tuesday night was a detour rather than a turning point.
For more on how this series reached 3-0, see our Game 3 report: https://ussportsmedia.com/brewers-beat-rays-10-1-world-series-game-3/ — and our series preview: https://ussportsmedia.com/brewers-vs-rays-world-series-2026/ — plus Tampa Bay’s road here, including its ALCS win over Cleveland: https://ussportsmedia.com/rays-vs-guardians-game-4-2026/
Sources: Reuters (Game 4 rally, scoring sequence, series score, Game 5 on Wednesday in St. Petersburg) and USA Today (walk-off details, series context, Game 5 time and TV information), linked above.
