Brewers hold off late Rays rally for 3-2 victory in Game 1 of World Series

Pitcher Trevor Megill was shouting in celebration and his Milwaukee teammates were bolting out of the dugout to congratulate one another, believing they had just escaped a ninth-inning jam to beat Tampa Bay in Game 1 of the World Series.

Not quite yet.

What initially was ruled a game-ending double play got overturned after a video review showed Brewers shortstop Cooper Pratt’s right foot was slightly off the bag when he reached to catch a high throw from second baseman Brice Turang.

Megill regrouped and struck out Jonny DeLuca with two runners in scoring position as Milwaukee edged the Rays 3-2 on Friday night.

"My thought was it looked like a close play," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "[Rays replay coordinator] Nick Rogers did a good job of recognizing that it was really close. In the moment, I don't think he thought too strongly about it, but at that point why not challenge it?"

The teams will return to Milwaukee for Game 2 at 8 p.m. Saturday. The scheduled starters are two-time All-Star right-hander Drew Rasmussen for Tampa Bay and right-hander Logan Henderson for Milwaukee.

The ninth inning was particularly nerve-racking for the Brewers and the sellout crowd at American Family Field attending Milwaukee’s first World Series game since 1982. Many paid several thousand dollars per seat on the secondary ticket market.

“You have a big range of emotions,” said Brewers captain Christian Yelich.

Milwaukee ace Jacob Misiorowski allowed one run and four hits over five innings to earn the victory. Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby combined for five strikeouts in three scoreless innings of relief before handing the ball to Megill.

“Not perfect, but good enough to get a win,” Misiorowski said.

Milwaukee scored twice in a two-pitch span when hard-hit balls deflected off the gloves of center fielder DeLuca and shortstop Taylor Walls in the first inning.

DeLuca missed his attempt at a diving catch on Yelich’s one-out triple with Jackson Chourio on first base. Yelich hit an 0-2 cutter to the right-center gap of starter Nick Martinez and DeLuca sprinted 85 feet and sprawled. The ball bounced off his glove in front of the warning track and rolled away for a go-ahead triple.

“You can’t be perfect in this game,” DeLuca said. “You’re going to fail a lot more than you’re going to succeed.”

Cash didn't view it as a failure.

“Jonny covered a lot of ground right there to even make that play close," he said. “Highlight-reel play.”

With the infield in, William Contreras lined the next pitch at 108.4 mph. The ball glanced off the webbing of Walls' glove and into left field for an RBI single and a 2-0 lead.

“We gave ourselves plenty of opportunities, put ourselves in really good positions to score runs, to prevent runs,” Walls said. “We had some good plays where we did prevent some, and then we had some that we were inches away from maybe saving a couple more.”

Trailing 2-1, after Tampa Bay's Liam Hicks' RBI groundout in the fourth, Victor Mesa Jr. was caught stealing third for the final out of the fifth with slugger Yandy Díaz at the plate.

“Victor is really competing, trying to do something to make something happen, put a little pressure on the defense,” Cash said, “and it didn’t work in our favor.”

One inning later, Jonathan Aranda was thrown out trying to swipe second as Chandler Simpson struck out on a low slider for an inning-ending double play.

“That’s on me, ultimately. So much trust in Chandler putting the ball in play,” Cash said. “But he had a pretty nasty pitch.”

Contreras, the Brewers' catcher, had an excellent 1.49-second pop time in throwing out Mesa.

"Look, he's a very talented player on both sides of the ball. We knew that coming in,"
Cash said of Contreras. "Not surprised by anything that he did, but that's not going to change our aggressive approach, certainly on the bases.,"

ALSO READ: How St. Petersburg is bracing for 100,000 World Series fans

Tampa Bay trailed 3-1 and hadn't put a runner on since the sixth inning until it mounted its comeback attempt in the ninth.

Aranda and Simpson hit consecutive one-out singles off Megill. A double steal involving pinch-runner Jorge Mateo and Simpson put the potential tying run in scoring position with Rays slugger Junior Caminero at the plate. Caminero walked on a 3-2 pitch in the dirt to load the bases.

Hicks hit a grounder to the right side, and Turang ranged well to his left to field the ball before throwing to Pratt to start the double play. Afterward, fireworks went off, players poured onto the field and Milwaukee fans roared — before the crowd hushed as it watched the play again on the videoboard.

After the review showed Pratt's foot off the base, Hicks was still out at first, but the Rays had runners at second and third with the score 3-2. DeLuca's strikeout then ended it.

“You just have to lock it back in," Yelich said. "It’s the World Series — you have to do what you have to do to make things happen.”

By sweeping the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series, the Brewers had time to set up their rotation the way they wanted by handing the Game 1 start to Misiorowski, the hard-throwing NL Cy Young Award favorite.

Misiorowski opened the game by throwing the fastest pitch ever delivered in a World Series, a 103.5 mph ball to Yandy Díaz. The right-hander finished with a season-low three strikeouts.

"Look, he's so talented. He's such a special pitcher," Cash said. "I felt like for him to be out of the game at five innings, there's a small win in that. The problem is when you knock him out of the game, you've got just an elite bullpen that can match up and come in the ballgame like they did and kept us quiet."

While Milwaukee started with its ace, Tampa Bay countered with Martinez to give Rasmussen and AL Championship Series MVP Freddy Peralta an extra day of rest. Martinez struck out five and allowed two runs over five innings, but a slow start proved costly.

ALSO READ: World Series watch parties set for Tropicana Field while the Rays are in Milwaukee

"He was really good," Cash said of Martinez. "Nick's pitches, velo [velocity] was spiked up a little bit. I'm guessing everybody's velo is going to be a little amped in this setting."

Yelich was batting third in the lineup for the first time since Aug. 3. The three-time All-Star and 2018 NL MVP posted the lowest on-base percentage (.315) and OPS (.692) of his career, but he has stepped up his since being named the first team captain in franchise history the final week of the regular season.

He was the seventh player to triple in his first World Series plate appearance, and the first since Kansas City’s Lynn Jones in 1985, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

"Nick didn't let the two runs early on factor into anything else once he went out for the second inning," Cash said of Martinez. "Certainly gave us every opportunity, kept it right there. Really impressed and proud of the way Nick went about it."

Tampa Bay got a run back in the fourth. Aranda drew a leadoff walk and advanced to third when Caminero doubled on a one-out liner with a 112.7 mph exit velocity that sailed over center fielder Garrett Mitchell and off his outstretched glove. Aranda came home on Hicks' groundout to the right side.

Milwaukee extended the lead to 3-1 in the seventh. Pratt drew a leadoff walk from Steven Matz and scored from second when Chourio greeted Kevin Kelly with a two-out single.

That insurance run proved critical.

“The guys settled in right away and did a great job," Yelich said. "We still have a ways to go, but it’s nice to get that first one.

The Game 1 winner has gone on to win the World Series 62.8% of the time.

This marks the first World Series featuring two teams seeking their first championship since 1980, when the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Kansas City Royals in six games. The only other major league clubs without a World Series title are the Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners.

WUSF's Rick Mayer contributed to this report.