The Tampa Bay Rays will play Game 4 of the World Series on Tuesday night needing a win to keep their season going. The Brewers lead 3-0 after a 10-1 rout Monday at Tropicana Field, and one more victory would give the franchise its first championship. First pitch is set for 8 p.m. ET in St. Petersburg, with Fox carrying the broadcast.
What the Rays are up against
No team has erased a 3-0 deficit in the World Series. The only club to overcome that deficit in any postseason series is the 2004 Boston Red Sox, who rallied against the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series, MLB.com noted after Game 3.
The Rays' problem in this series has been run production. Tampa Bay has scored seven runs across three games: two in a 3-2 loss in Game 1, four in a 5-4 loss in Game 2 and one on Monday. All four of the Game 2 runs came in the first inning, leaving the Rays with three runs in every other inning of the series combined.
Milwaukee scored more than that in one inning Monday. The Brewers sent seven straight hitters to safety in the fifth, all with two outs, and turned a 2-0 lead into a 10-0 lead.
According to OptaSTATS figures cited by MLB.com, no team had ever strung together seven consecutive hits in a postseason game, and the eight two-out runs set a World Series record for a single inning.
The inning could have ended with no damage. A force play at second on a high bouncer fielded by third baseman Junior Caminero was first ruled the third out, but a replay review found Christian Yelich had beaten the throw. Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash called the sequence that followed "deflating" in comments reported by MLB.com.
Robert Gasser held the Rays to one hit over six scoreless innings for Milwaukee, and Tampa Bay's only run came in the ninth. Rays starter Freddy Peralta lasted 4 2/3 innings and was charged with five earned runs, and the bullpen allowed the other five runs in the fifth.
Game 4 pitching
The Rays will start right-hander Griffin Jax, who went 8-10 with a 3.53 ERA in the regular season. MLB.com lists him at 0-1 with a 6.00 ERA in the postseason. Milwaukee had not announced a starter as of Tuesday morning, and MLB.com's probable pitchers page showed the Brewers' slot as undecided.
Jax has not pitched since Oct. 15, when he worked four innings against Cleveland in the ALCS, according to Baseball Prospectus, which also noted that the Brewers could open with left-hander Shane Drohan. The publication's preview noted that neither pitcher has worked deep into games lately and described both as closer to openers than traditional starters.
