{"id":945530,"date":"2026-10-25T09:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T09:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/945530\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T09:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T09:22:08","slug":"relentless-brewers-rally-past-rays-to-take-2-0-world-series-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/945530\/","title":{"rendered":"Relentless Brewers rally past Rays to take 2-0 World Series lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILWAUKEE \u2013 When Liam Hicks<\/a> homered in the first inning Saturday, the Rays took a 4-0 lead just five batters into the game and seemed well on their way to a comfortable win. Their ace, Drew Rasmussen<\/a>, was on the mound. The path to a Game 2 victory was clear.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the Rays soon got sloppy. A ground ball trickled through Jonathan Aranda\u2019s legs at first base, an over-aggressive send got Hicks thrown out at home plate and Chandler Simpson let a ball carom off his glove in left field.<\/p>\n

Along the way, the Brewers just kept pushing, and with the Rays’ lead down to one, light-hitting right fielder Sal Frelick hit a left-on-left homer to straightaway centre to tie the game 4-4 in the sixth. One inning later, Cooper Pratt singled home the go-ahead run and the Brewers were up for good.<\/p>\n

Thanks to their persistent offence and more impressive relief pitching the Brewers won 5-4, giving them a commanding 2-0 lead in the World Series. Now 9-1 in the playoffs after an MLB-best 103 wins in the regular season, Milwaukee continues to look like the best team in the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re down to the end of the season here,\u201d said Brewers manager Pat Murphy. \u201cThey\u2019re going to tap us on the shoulder at some point and tell us no more. (Our) guys just don\u2019t give up. They believe, and they don\u2019t give up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Rays manager Kevin Cash acknowledged \u201cwe didn\u2019t play our cleanest baseball (and this) was probably not our best day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first home run of the World Series came from Hicks, a Toronto native who grew up cheering for the Blue Jays and playing for the Toronto Mets amateur baseball program. A ninth-round draft pick in 2021, he bounced from the Rangers to the Tigers to the Marlins before breaking out in 2026, when the Rays acquired him.<\/p>\n

With one on and one out in the first, Hicks hit a no-doubt home run into the second deck at American Family Field, joining George Selkirk, Larry Walker and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. as the only Canadian-born players to homer in the World Series.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn’t have the day that I wanted yesterday,\u201d \u00a0Hicks said. \u201cSo it really felt good to help the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

But soon afterwards, Rasmussen started struggling with four first-inning singles leading to two early runs and an elevated pitch count. Then the Rays started playing with uncharacteristic sloppiness, allowing the Brewers to keep the game close.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, they clawed back,\u201d Hicks said. \u201cThey played better than us the rest of the game and we just couldn’t capitalize on our opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Afterwards, in the Brewers clubhouse, starter Brandon Woodruff said he\u2019s impressed by the composure his teammates are showing under pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s the right people in the room for sure,\u201d Woodruff said. \u201cI don’t think there’s any panic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frelick\u2019s homer is especially notable considering he hit all of four homers in 111 regular season games this year. And one inning later, he nearly went deep again.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe hit four lasers tonight,\u201d said Murphy. \u201cHe\u2019s got the it factor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though his team\u2019s aggressive baserunning has backfired at times in the World Series, Cash explained that the Rays have relied on creating pressure all year and don\u2019t intend to reinvent themselves now.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s see if we can put some pressure on somebody else,\u201d he said. \u201cTo their credit, they\u2019ve responded with everything we\u2019ve thrown at them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether it\u2019s perplexing to score four in the first then manage nothing afterwards, Hicks credited the Brewers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got a really good pitching staff over there,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I don’t think anyone’s perplexed. But it’s frustrating for sure. We know we’re a really good offence, and we know we can score more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before Game 2, Milwaukee had gone 10-0 with Henderson on the mound at home in 2026. But in his World Series debut, he lasted just three innings while allowing four runs, of which three were earned.<\/p>\n

Yet Rasmussen wasn\u2019t much better, covering just 3.2 innings while allowing three runs and striking out four. It was an underwhelming performance from the former Brewer, whose 2.71 ERA ranks third in all of baseball over the last two seasons behind only Tarik Skubal and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.<\/p>\n

\u201cWasn\u2019t as crisp,\u201d Cash said. \u201cJust wasn\u2019t as sharp as he\u2019s been for quite some time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless, the Brewers bullpen did its job as usual. JoJo Romero, Dustin May, DL Hall, Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby combined for six scoreless innings to make the win possible, with Ashby stranding the potential tying run on third in the ninth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not fresh, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d said Murphy. \u201cMaybe they\u2019ll get crisp soon, but they certainly are willing.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result, a sold-out crowd of 43,245 saw the Brewers win yet another home game. In fact, the last time the Brewers lost at American Family Field was September 13, nearly a month and a half ago.<\/p>\n

Now, the challenge shifts to Tropicana Field, where the Brewers will have a chance to win their first-ever World Series championship should they take two of the next three. The Rays, meanwhile, must win two of three at home to keep their season alive and force the series back to Milwaukee for Game 6.<\/p>\n

Robert Gasser faces former teammate Freddy Peralta at Tropicana Field in Game 3 on Monday at 8 p.m. ET \/ 5 p.m. PT on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+. On paper, it\u2019s advantage Rays. Though by now, we should all know never to underestimate the 2026 Brewers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE \u2013 When Liam Hicks homered in the first inning Saturday, the Rays took a 4-0 lead just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":945531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,82],"class_list":["post-945530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=945530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/945531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}