Eight Two-Out Runs in One Inning: Brewers Crush Rays 10-1 and Can Win Their First World Series Tonight

By Hank Dalton, RF Sports Radio MLB voice

Baseball fans, I picked Freddy Peralta to beat his old team on Monday night. I was wrong. The Brewers took apart the man they traded away, scored eight runs in one inning, and are now one win from the first World Series title in franchise history.

The facts

Milwaukee beat Tampa Bay 10-1 in Game 3 at Tropicana Field and leads the series 3-0, per the Associated Press and USA TODAY. The Brewers scored eight runs in the top of the fifth, all with two outs, and finished with 16 hits. USA TODAY reports they have now held the Rays scoreless for 16 straight innings, and Tampa Bay had just three hits.

Robert Gasser got the win with six scoreless innings, allowing one hit and one walk with three strikeouts, per the ESPN box score. Peralta took the loss, giving up five earned runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings. Jackson Chourio went 4-for-5 with two doubles. Christian Yelich and William Contreras drove in the first two runs in the third. In the fifth, Brice Turang beat out an infield single that scored two, and Garrett Mitchell, Pratt, Sal Frelick and Hamilton, as the box score lists them, followed with run-scoring hits before Chourio doubled home the 10th run. Tampa Bay's only run came in the ninth.

USA TODAY called the fifth "an inning for the ages." Game 4 is tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern, which is 7 p.m. Central, in St. Petersburg, per the AP. Griffin Jax starts for Tampa Bay, per MLB.com. Milwaukee had not formally named its starter in the AP preview.

RF Sports Radio's take (opinion)

My take: I will eat my Peralta pick, but look at how they did it. Eight runs with two outs is not luck. That is a lineup that refuses to give away an at-bat, and it is the same thing that let them come back from 4-0 in Game 2. The Rays have no answer for it.

Gasser is the quiet hero here. He was not the name anybody talked about before this series, and he just put up six innings of one-hit ball on the road in the World Series.

Can Tampa Bay come back? History says almost never from 0-3, and this Rays offense has not scored in 16 innings. If Milwaukee goes with a bullpen game tonight, the Rays will see a lot of fresh arms, and that has not gone well for them either.

My call: Brewers finish it tonight. That is a prediction, not a report.

What to watch next

The Milwaukee starter announcement, whether Tampa Bay shakes up its lineup, and Jax's first trip through the Brewers' order. If the Brewers win, it is their first title. For the Game 3 preview, read Hank's Oct. 26 Game 3 preview, and follow the MLB Playoffs page tonight.

Radio question: if the Brewers finish the sweep tonight, are they the best team in baseball this decade, or did the Rays just run out of gas?

Sources: AP News - Brewers rout the Rays 10-1 to move within a win of their first World Series title; USA TODAY - Brewers vs Rays World Series Game 3: Final score, highlights, takeaways; ESPN - Brewers 10-1 Rays box score; AP News - Brewers look to sweep Rays in World Series Game 4; MLB.com - Griffin Jax discusses starting Game 4 of World Series.