World Series Game 4: Eventually Everything Rhymes

 

An extra-inning game happening on the 15th anniversary of David Freese's walk-off-, in a Game 4 that began with Brett Phillips throwing out a first pitch. The universe set the table. The possibility of recurrence was there. The Rays delivered.

Wild game, first of all. Griffin Jax and Dustin May doing surprisingly nice starting jobs is proof that the starting pitching job should not die off in the playoffs, as much as many teams want to keep using openers. The Rays found the guy who the Brewers had trouble with, and it was somehow Griffin Jax, who, along with the bullpen, shut out basically every hitter except for Cooper Pratt. Hamilton had a homer, Chourio broke a record, but if it wasn't for Pratt's 4-for-5 day, this wouldn't have been close. It was a full-club pitching effort that the Rays needed. It will exhaust them going forward, but it was worth it to keep the Brewers at bay.

This also exhausted the Brewers' bullpen, as once it was down to Shane Drohan, the only real pitcher that anybody's had fun with this month, the Rays struck, getting everybody on base, the tying run home and the Williamson single to win it, not hurt by more Brewers errors. They pushed on this team til the good relievers were used, and it sets up a Game 5 that will live and die by starting pitching. Jacob Misiorowski will likely get the ball for Milwaukee, and the Rays might have to go with Drew Rasmussen on short rest. The idea is to strike while the fatigue is hot and force a Game 6 without getting overly exhausted themselves. When they needed the help, the Rays got great work from Liam Hicks, Jonny DeLuca, and Chandler Simpson, and someone like infield whiz kid Ben Williamson could be the hero. Now...Junior Caminero was walking a little funny to end the game, and there may be something amiss with the star third baseman, which is not a good thing heading into another do-or-die game, but this was a game the Rays won with contact work, and if they can locate that same stuff again, they could bring this back to Milwaukee.

This series felt predictable for approximately 5 seconds, then the Rays broke it open and kept the fun going. It'll be interesting to see how Game 5 goes, and who'll come out on top there. I'm still pulling for Milwaukee, but if this thing keeps going I won't exactly complain.