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The Milwaukee Brewers are now two wins away from the first World Series title in franchise history, but they had to sweat out one more nervy finish to get there. Milwaukee erased an early four-run deficit and held off the Tampa Bay Rays in the ninth inning for a 5-4 win in Game 2 on Saturday night at American Family Field, taking a 2-0 series lead.
The Rays jumped on Logan Henderson right away after Cooper Pratt’s throwing error on Yandy Diaz’s leadoff grounder. Junior Caminero drove in a run before Liam Hicks crushed a two-run homer to cap a four-run first.
The Brewers answered immediately as RBI singles from William Contreras and Garrett Mitchell cut the deficit in half. Milwaukee pulled within one in the fourth when Pratt scored on an error by first baseman Jonathan Aranda.
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Sal Frelick then delivered the biggest swing of the night. Leading off the sixth, he won a nine-pitch battle with Ian Seymour and launched a 408-foot solo homer to center to tie the game at 4. It was his first career postseason homer and his first long ball in 103 plate appearances.
“I don’t hit a lot of home runs, especially to center, so I was happy it went out,” Frelick said after the game.
Pratt made up for his early miscue in the seventh, lining a go-ahead single to right that scored Brice Turang. “As long as there’s game left, we have a chance,” he said. “I think we’ve all bought into that. We’re never out of it.”
The Rays made it interesting in the ninth. Jonny DeLuca led off with a double against Aaron Ashby and moved to third on a groundout, putting the tying run 90 feet away. Ashby held firm, striking out Diaz on a full-count pitch to end it. For the second straight night, Tampa Bay left the tying run stranded at third in the ninth.
Ashby picked up his third save and still has not allowed a run in 15 2/3 postseason innings.
History favors the Brewers. Of the 57 teams to take a 2-0 lead in the World Series, 46 have gone on to win the title.
The series shifts to Tropicana Field for Game 3 on Monday, with Robert Gasser set to face ALCS MVP Freddy Peralta.
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