The Tampa Bay Rays refused to let the Milwaukee Brewers celebrate on their field. Down to their final three outs and trailing in the 12th inning of World Series Game 4, the Rays staged a stunning two-run rally on Tuesday night, October 27, 2026, beating the Brewers 4-3 in 12 innings at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, and forcing a Game 5. Pinch-hitter Ben Williamson, who had managed just one hit in 15 postseason at-bats before stepping to the plate, slapped a ground ball into right field to score the winning run, silencing a crowd thick with travelling Brewers fans who had arrived ready to watch a sweep.

The champagne was ready in the Milwaukee clubhouse. The plastic sheeting was being unrolled. The Brewers, leading 3-2 after rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt's go-ahead solo home run in the top of the 12th, were three outs from their first World Series championship in franchise history. Instead, Tampa Bay rewrote the script in a bottom of the 12th that began with an error, ran through three straight singles, and ended with Williamson's walk-off hit. Milwaukee still leads the best-of-seven series 3-1, but the Rays are alive, and Game 5 comes on Wednesday night back at Tropicana Field.

Key Points

• The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 in 12 innings in World Series Game 4 on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, avoiding a sweep and forcing Game 5.
• Rookie Cooper Pratt gave Milwaukee a 3-2 lead with a solo home run in the top of the 12th, his fourth hit of the night, before the Rays rallied in the bottom half.
• A throwing error by Brewers third baseman Joey Ortiz let Junior Caminero reach base, and singles by Liam Hicks, Jonny DeLuca and Chandler Simpson set up the comeback.
• Pinch-hitter Ben Williamson, 1 for 15 in the postseason before his at-bat, singled to right field for the walk-off winner.
• Milwaukee still leads the series 3-1, but Tampa Bay became just the fifth of 26 teams to trail 3-0 in a World Series and still win Game 4.
• Game 5 is Wednesday night at Tropicana Field, with NL Cy Young Award favourite Jacob Misiorowski scheduled to start for Milwaukee.

What Happened

The Rays Brewers Game 4 drama built slowly before exploding in the 12th inning. Tampa Bay struck first in the second inning, when Chandler Simpson hit an RBI double off Milwaukee starter Dustin May. Milwaukee answered in the fourth against Rays starter Griffin Jax: Sal Frelick hit a two-out single and came around to score on Pratt's double, tying the game at 1-1. In the bottom of the fourth, Caminero singled to chase May, advanced on a groundout, and then scored when he twisted away from a tag attempt and Milwaukee's David Hamilton bounced a throw past first baseman Jake Bauers for an error, putting Tampa Bay ahead 2-1.

Hamilton atoned for that error in the fifth, driving an 0-2 fastball from Jax into the right-field seats for his second home run of the postseason, tying the game at 2-2. From there, both bullpens took over. Milwaukee's relievers had pitched eight consecutive scoreless innings by the time the game reached extra innings, and the score stayed locked at 2-2 through the 11th. Then came the 12th, and with it one of the wildest finishes in recent World Series history.

Pratt, a 22-year-old rookie who debuted in June and had already sparked Milwaukee's 5-4 win in Game 2, drove a slider from Ian Seymour into the left-field seats for a solo home run in the top of the 12th, giving the Brewers a 3-2 lead. Milwaukee's players bounded out of the dugout to greet him, and Pratt became the first rookie ever to hit an extra-inning home run in the World Series. The celebration, it turned out, was premature. In the bottom half, Caminero led off with a routine grounder to third base against reliever Antonio Senzatela, but Ortiz, known for his defence, threw the ball past Bauers at first. Caminero reached safely, and the inning was alive.

Milwaukee brought in Shane Drohan, pitching for the first time since October 15, and the Rays pounced. Hicks singled to left, sending pinch-runner Cedric Mullins, who had replaced the limping Caminero at third base, to third with nobody out. DeLuca followed with a single up the middle past a drawn-in infield to tie the game at 3-3. Simpson, after first trying to bunt, slapped a single to centre to load the bases with nobody out. Milwaukee brought in a five-man infield with the infield in, but Williamson, pinch-hitting, chopped a ball over Bauers and into right field. Nick Fortes scored the winning run, and the Rays poured out of the dugout to mob Williamson as the Brewers' fans in the crowd of 40,514 groaned.

Background and Context

The context makes the comeback even more remarkable. Tampa Bay entered Game 4 trailing 3-0 in the series, a deficit no team in World Series history has ever overcome. Of the 26 teams that had fallen behind 3-0 in the Fall Classic before Tuesday, the Rays became just the fifth to even win Game 4 and force a Game 5. The previous four all lost Game 5. Across all best-of-seven postseason series, 43 teams have trailed 3-0, and only one has ever come back to win: the 2004 Boston Red Sox against the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series. The odds, in other words, remain overwhelmingly against Tampa Bay. But Tuesday night proved the Rays are not ready to be a footnote.

The series had also been defined by Milwaukee's dominance in every phase. The Brewers won Game 1 and Game 2 on the road in the early games of the series, then routed Tampa Bay 10-1 in Game 3 on Monday night, a game in which Milwaukee scored eight runs in the fifth inning, all with two outs, a World Series first. Milwaukee's eight-game winning streak, stretching back through the postseason, was the longest of its kind in the club's history, and the Brewers were bidding to become only the second team ever to sweep both a League Championship Series and the World Series. Tampa Bay's win ended that streak and denied Milwaukee a celebration on the Rays' home field.

Both clubs are chasing their first World Series championship. Milwaukee's last, and only, appearance in the Fall Classic before this year came in 1982, when the Brewers lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, and the franchise has never won a title. Tampa Bay has reached the World Series twice before, in 2008 and 2020, and lost both times. One of these two teams will end a long wait this week. Tuesday night ensured the wait lasts at least one more day for Milwaukee.

Rays Brewers Game 4 Heroes and Heartbreak

Pratt's night deserves its own chapter. The 22-year-old rookie finished with four hits, including the RBI double that tied the game in the fourth and the solo home run in the 12th that briefly looked like the series winner. The Milwaukee Courier noted that his four-hit game made him the first rookie to record four hits in a World Series clinching game, and his 12th-inning homer made him the first rookie to hit an extra-inning home run in the Fall Classic. Pratt's go-ahead hit in Game 2 had already announced him as a postseason star; Game 4 confirmed it, even in defeat.

Jackson Chourio, Milwaukee's young star, added a single and a double to improve to 10 for 20 in the series, a remarkable .500 pace on the biggest stage. Frelick's two-out single in the fourth and Hamilton's home run in the fifth kept Milwaukee in a game its starter, May, had left early. But the night's final chapter belonged to Tampa Bay's depth players. Williamson's walk-off hit came from a player who had been 1 for 15 in the postseason. Simpson, who drove in the game's first run and loaded the bases in the 12th, summed up the clubhouse mood afterwards: "We've got a lot of fight in us. We're never going to shy away. We were going to keep fighting until the end, the last inning, the last out, the last play, the last pitch. We were going to keep fighting. That's what we did tonight."

Williamson echoed that theme. "It just shows the resiliency of this group," he said. "We continue to fight, and that's been the motto this series and this whole season, is just fight." For Milwaukee, captain Christian Yelich tried to keep the loss in perspective: "If you want to win a championship, you've got to survive some hard things. Like I said earlier, it's supposed to be hard. It's supposed to test you. We understand that."

Reactions and Quotes

Game 4 starter Griffin Jax, who gave up Hamilton's tying home run, was blunt about Tampa Bay's series so far and about what changed on Tuesday. "These are the two best teams left in baseball," Jax said. "Unfortunately, we haven't been playing the cleanest baseball for the last three games. No secret there. You can tell by the three losses we have that we've been giving them a lot of extra chances, and you can't do that against the Brewers. They've taken advantage of everything. There's no rewriting the script. No changes in who we are." Then he added the line that defined the night: "But this time, they re-wrote the script."

Caminero, whose hustle in the 12th started the rally, spoke before the comeback about the respect between the clubs. "Obviously, we want to play well. Everybody in this clubhouse wants to play well," he said. "I don't even think it's been a matter of necessarily playing bad. I think a lot of credit goes to Milwaukee. They've just been playing exceptionally well. Earlier, I told Brewers catcher William Contreras, you know, you have my blessing. You know, I wish you the best in this series. But now, it's kind of like, well you've played a little too well. Things are what they are now. Credit to Milwaukee. Things just haven't unfolded our way necessarily." That changed, at least for one night, in the bottom of the 12th.

Caminero's health is now a major storyline. He left the Game 4 win limping and in obvious pain after bursting from first to third on Hicks's single, and he was replaced by pinch-runner Mullins before hobbling off the field with an ailing left foot. But the slugger said he will definitely play in Game 5, and manager Kevin Cash backed him up in the strongest terms: "He'll play tomorrow on one leg. I'll make sure of it." Drew Rasmussen, beaten in Game 2, was generous about Milwaukee even in victory's aftermath: "That's a really talented group. In all honesty, they've outperformed us in all three facets of the game. I think they've pitched better than us. I think they've done better offensively. And I think they've played better defense than we have. It's a really talented group. Their decision-making is off the charts." But not this night. This night belonged to the Rays.

Why It Matters

Game 4 matters because it changes the shape of the series, even if it does not change the favourite. A sweep would have ended the World Series on Tuesday night and sent Milwaukee home as champions. Instead, the series returns for at least one more game, the Rays' belief is real for the first time all series, and the Brewers must now win a clinching game on the road after watching a championship celebration dissolve in front of them. History says teams that lose a Game 4 like this one still usually finish the job, but the psychological weight of Tuesday night is real: Milwaukee's bullpen, dominant all postseason, finally cracked, and it cracked against the bottom of Tampa Bay's order.

The game also matters for what it says about this Rays team. Tampa Bay has spent the entire series being outplayed in all three facets, by Rasmussen's own admission, yet it found a way to win the one game it absolutely had to win. That resilience is the same quality that carried the Rays through the postseason to reach the World Series in the first place. If they lose Game 5, Tuesday night will be remembered as a brave last stand. If they win Game 5, the series returns to Milwaukee with the pressure suddenly and entirely on the Brewers.

For baseball more broadly, Game 4 was a reminder of why the World Series still commands the country's attention. A rookie's extra-inning home run, a defensive error by a Gold Glove-calibre third baseman, a pinch-hitter who had been 1 for 15 delivering the biggest hit of his life, and a crowd of 40,514 that included thousands of travelling fans who drank a nearby sports bar dry, selling 1,000 cases of Miller Lite and Coors Lite in a single day, a month's normal supply. The game had everything except a Milwaukee celebration, and that absence is the story.

What Happens Next

Game 5 is Wednesday night at Tropicana Field. Milwaukee has NL Cy Young Award favourite Jacob Misiorowski scheduled to start, a daunting assignment for a Tampa Bay lineup that has scored just one run in each of its last two regulation efforts before Tuesday's late outburst. Rays manager Kevin Cash said after Game 4 that he had not yet decided on a starter, and USA TODAY reported that ace Drew Rasmussen, beaten in Game 2, could be in line for the ball. Caminero's left foot will be watched closely in pregame, though Cash's "one leg" comment leaves little doubt about his availability.

If Milwaukee wins Game 5, the Brewers claim their first World Series title and the series ends in five games. If Tampa Bay wins, the series shifts back to Milwaukee for Game 6, and the Rays' improbable comeback bid gains real momentum. Either way, Tuesday night's 12-inning classic has already secured its place in World Series lore: only the fourth game in Fall Classic history in which a team facing elimination won in extra innings.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the score of World Series Game 4?

The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 in 12 innings on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Who hit the walk-off winner for the Rays?

Pinch-hitter Ben Williamson singled to right field in the bottom of the 12th inning, scoring Nick Fortes with the winning run. Williamson had been 1 for 15 in the postseason before the at-bat.

Who leads the World Series after Game 4?

Milwaukee leads the best-of-seven series 3-1. The Brewers need one more win to claim their first World Series championship, while the Rays must win three straight.

When is World Series Game 5?

Game 5 is Wednesday night, October 28, 2026, at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. Jacob Misiorowski is scheduled to start for Milwaukee, while Tampa Bay had not named a starter as of Tuesday night.

Has any team ever come back from 3-0 down in the World Series?

No team has ever won a World Series after trailing 3-0. Tampa Bay is just the fifth of 26 teams to trail 3-0 and win Game 4. The only team to win any best-of-seven postseason series from 3-0 down is the 2004 Boston Red Sox, against the New York Yankees in the ALCS.

Related coverage on US News Pulse: Brewers Rout Rays 10-1 in World Series Game 3 to Move One Win From Title, World Series Game 4: Brewers One Win From First Title as Rays Fight to Survive, and Stephen Curry Perfect Night Powers Warriors Past Nuggets 134-114 for First Win.