MILWAUKEE — The 43,245 screaming, yellow towel-waving fans, serenaded the Milwaukee Brewers off the field Saturday evening after their latest dramatic comeback victory, defeating the Tampa Bay Rays, wondering only one thing.
When’s the World Series parade?
The Brewers pulled off a stunning 5-4 victory over the Rays at American Family Field, taking a 2-0 lead in their bid for the first World Series championship in franchise history.
Really, at this point, there may be no stopping them.
The Brewers were down 4-0 just five batters into the game, teasing the Rays that they were going to win, and then methodically came back to rip their hearts out.
Incredibly, the Brewers have trailed in seven postseason games this year by a combined score of 16-5.
And they’ve proceeded to shut out the opposition by a combined score of 23-0 to win the seven games.
The Brewers have now won seven consecutive postseason games, the longest in franchise history, and the longest including a World Series victory since the Washington Nationals in 2019.
Insane.
Really, the Rays still can’t believe what hit them.
They had their ace on the mound in Drew Rasmussen.
Rasmussen entered the game as the hottest pitcher in baseball.
He yielded a 1.05 ERA in September, giving up just three runs in 25 2/3 innings. He was 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA in October in his first three postseason starts. He had a 4-0 lead before even stepped on the mound.
And he lasted just 3 ⅔ innings, giving three of the runs right back, with six hits and two walks.
It was his shortest outing since getting pummeled by the Yankees back on July 9, giving up six earned runs in just 2 ⅓ innings in their 12-4 loss. It was only the second time in his career he threw at least 80 pitches and lasted four innings.
It was borderline shocking considering Rasmussen’s utter dominance.
Yet, there were the Brewers scratching out four hits and two runs in the first inning on run-scoring singles by William Contreras and Garrett Mitchell. They tacked on another in the fourth inning on an error by Rays first baseman Jonathan Aranda.
And then, came the shocker, bringing the house down.
Sal Frelick, the Brewers’ No. 8 hitter who had hit only one homer off the 272 left-handed pitchers he has faced the last two seasons, and just four homers in 407 plate appearances overall this year, took lefty Ian Seymour deep.
Frelick, batting Seymour for nine pitches, fouling off four of them, drilled a 93-mph fastball, 408 feet over the center-field fence. Frelick sprinted and skipped around the basepaths in just 21.4 seconds, barely looking up to admire it.
The game was suddenly tied, and one inning later, the Brewers finally had their lead with rookie Cooper Pratt’s run-scoring single for a 5-4 lead.
And, considering the Brewers’ vaunted bullpen, which had produced a 1.24 ERA this postseason, the game was over.
Really, the biggest surprise of all this postseason for the Brewers has been their uncanny ability to dominate up the greatest starters in the game in October.
They beat up two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal. They ripped into World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamto.
They blasted two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell. They knocked out $30-million-a-year pitcher Tyler Glasnow.
That decorated quintet failed to win a single game against the Brewers, yielding a gruesome 6.53 ERA, with only Snell lasting past five innings.
This night, they treated Rasmussen with the same utter disrespect.
Now, the teams will travel to Tampa, with the Rays leaving Sunday night and the Brewers on Monday, with the World Series resuming Tuesday with Game 3 [8 p.m., ET] at Tropicana Field.
The Trop, which has become a house of horrors for visiting teams, will never look so good for the Rays.
“There's definitely little nuances at our ballpark that make The Trop unique," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We love it there, and we love our fan support. Our fan support has been second to none in this postseason run. It was loud here. I think that we can get just as loud, if not louder, at our ballpark.
“I know our group is ready to get back there…taking it back for Game 3, and really give our fans something to yell about."
The Rays, who made three outs on the basepaths in Game 1, continued their aggressiveness this night, with Chandler Simpson running on All-Star catcher William Contreras and stealing second base in their four-run first inning.
“I'm confident with the way we've ran the bases all season long and our decision-making all season long," Cash said before the game, “we're going to stay committed to that."
Oops.
They made another foolish mistake on the bases again in the sixth inning when Victor Mesa hit a single to shallow left field and third base coach Brady Williams waved home catcher Liam Hicks. Left fielder Jackson Chouro fielded it cleanly. It bounced twice to home plate. And it still nailed Hicks by five feet.
The crowd was still buzzing when Frelick stepped to the plate, and hit one of the most stunning home runs in Brewers’ postseason history.
Now, 44 years after their lone World Series appearance, the Brewers truly believe this is their year.
So does all of Milwaukee and the rest of Wisconsin.
The Brewers are coming back to Milwaukee either to play a potential Game 6 on Friday night, or to prepare for a downtown parade that will be remembered for generations.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Are Brewers unbeatable? World Series dream nearly complete with 2-0 lead