MILWAUKEE – This World Series is set to move on from Dairyland, but not before a chicken-or-the-egg question is settled:
Are the Tampa Bay Raysblowing it on the big stage, or are the Milwaukee Brewers forcing them to act like imposters and not the 98-win American League champions?
The answer is relatively immaterial, since only one thing matters: The Brewers are up 2-0 in this World Series after a 5-4 Game 2 victory, their second one-run conquest and a most unlikely one given that the club trailed 4-0 after a half-inning.
Or maybe it was totally predictable.
The Brewers are now 9-1 in this postseason and, stunningly, have won seven of eight games in which they have trailed. Relentless. Demoralizing.
Two wins from a World Series championship.
Let’s break down the winners and losers of Game 2 from American Family Field as the Series shifts to the Gulf Coast:
Winner: Brewers bullpen
This is getting ridiculous.
The Rays ran a blitz on Brewers starter Logan Henderson, posting a 4-0 lead after a half-inning, catcher Liam Hicks achieving a career highlight with a two-run World Series home run.
Predictably, Henderson was out after three innings. Perhaps even more easily anticipated: Milwaukee’s bullpen did not give up a single run in six innings, striking out six and walking one.
The Brewers bullpen is now 8-1 with a 1.24 ERA in 50 ⅔ innings this season. Lefty Aaron Ashby recorded the last five outs for the save, running his postseason line to 15 ⅔ innings, zero runs.
"I’ll take this quote from Freddie Freeman: They all throw 100," says Rays outfielder Jonny DeLuca. "That usually is pretty tough and they all got pretty good stuff. They’re just good pitchers."
Ashby is one out shy of equaling Andrew Miller’s record 16-inning scoreless streak to begin the 2016 postseason.
“What he's doing right now is pretty special,” says first baseman Jake Bauers. “There's just such a calm presence on the mound with him right now that I don't remember seeing very often.
“And you know, we wouldn't be here without him.”
There tend to be diminishing returns with relievers in long postseasons; Miller hit the wall badly in the final three games of that 2016 World Series, and conventional wisdom says opponents fare better when they see a reliever multiple times.
Well, Ashby faced the San Diego Padres three times. Same with the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers. And now the Tampa Bay Rays got two looks at him in World Series Games 1 and 2.
Ashby has yet to give up a run. The window to sully him is almost closed.
Sal Frelick: Winner
Say this for Brewers manager Pat Murphy: He can certainly call his shot.
Murphy was asked pregame about Frelick and couldn’t stop gushing, dropping comparisons to Joe Montana and Larry Bird.
“He’s got the it factor,” says Murphy, leaving the observer to use their own imagination.
In the sixth inning, Frelick made it crystal clear. His epic nine-pitch at-bat ended in a 408-foot bullet over the wall in right center field, tying the game 4-4 in the sixth inning. It was his first homer this postseason and perhaps will be remembered as the most impactful longball whenever this Brewers run concludes.
“Sort of this blackout feeling,” says Frelick of his trip around the bases.
And almost lights out for Tampa Bay.
Kevin Cash: Loser
Tough gig, this postseason managing. And losing a pair of World Series games by one run can leave a winter worth of soul-searching.
Not that Cash blatantly pushed the wrong buttons. He just keeps ending up in tight situations and trying to leverage his way out of them.
In Game 2, it was ace Drew Rasmussen suddenly becoming an avatar of inefficiency, the Brewers hen-pecking him by fouling off 22 pitches and forcing him from the game in the fourth inning.
Top lefty reliever Cam Booser had to be summoned then to douse a bases-loaded situaoitn and pitched a scoreless fifth. But Ian Seymour’s fusillade of fastballs backfired when Frelick took him deep.
And lifting Tyler Wells for Kevin Kelly yielded a somewhat predictable result in the seventh inning: Kelly averaged less than a strikeout per inning this season. And Brewers shortstop Cooper Pratt, well, he put the ball in play, dropping a 90-mph sinker into right field to drive in Brice Turang with the go-ahead run.
“Cooper Pratt did a heck of a job staying on the ball, not trying to do too much, and shoot it the other way,” says Cash.
Stolen bases: Winner
The Brewers tallied five, the Rays two. Not to say the Go-Go Era is back in baseball; it was mostly pitcher malfeasance/indifference to keeping runners close.
Nonetheless, the Brewers’ five steals matched the 2024 Yankees in Game 4; the last time a club stole five bases in a World Series game minus today’s freewheeling pickoff rules was 1992, when Atlanta did it thanks to two swipes from none other than Deion Sanders.
The mystery of the check swing: Loser
Yeah, that automated check-swing replay thing is probably a foregone conclusion now, given how this game ended with Yandy Díaz’s arms spread wide in protest after crew chief James Hoye rang him up.
Cash thought Díaz swung, and Yandy generally agreed, though he did drop a couple “It is what it is,” a phrase that drops like a brick in any language.
Still, the call wasn’t nearly as questionable as, say, Wilmer Flores’ NLDS-ending strikeout against Max Scherzer and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Yet in our societal thirst for optimization, we will probably leave those calls up to robots soon enough, too.
Tampa Bay ticket brokers: Loser
Nothing quite like a team coming home in a 2-0 deficit to goose enthusiasm when the club has struggled to sell all tickets, anyway. Seats were still available on the Rays web site - running $675 apiece for the second level.
Suffice to say, the Rays likely won't come near the $2,300 get-in record Milwaukee set for Game 1. But there could be a nice boost in Games 4 and 5 - what with Milwaukeeans wanting to see their team clinch.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: World Series winners and losers: Amazing Ashby, manager misfires, check-swing drama