The Milwaukee Brewers blew Game 3 of the World Series open at Tropicana Field on Monday night, routing the Tampa Bay Rays 10-1 to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Right-hander Robert Gasser picked up the win for Milwaukee, improving to 1-0 this postseason, as the Brewers' offense did the rest of the damage against a Rays pitching staff that had little answer all night. The result extends a dominant run for Milwaukee, which finished the regular season 103-59, the best record in baseball, and has now carried that form straight through October against a Tampa Bay club that won 98 games of its own.
A series slipping away from Tampa Bay
No team in World Series history has come back from a 3-0 deficit to win the championship, a fact that will loom over the Rays as they try to salvage their season. Tampa Bay took Game 1 at home before dropping both Game 2 and now Game 3 by a combined margin that has left the Rays searching for answers against a Brewers lineup that has found its timing at exactly the right moment of the year.
Milwaukee, appearing in just its second World Series in franchise history after a loss to St. Louis in 1982, has leaned on a deep pitching staff and opportunistic hitting to seize control of the series far faster than most expected after a tightly contested Game 1. The Brewers now need just one win in their next four chances to clinch the franchise's first championship, with the series set to shift back to Milwaukee for Game 4.
What's next
The Rays will need to win four straight to avoid becoming the latest team eliminated from a 3-0 deficit, a feat that has become notoriously rare across the sport. Tampa Bay will lean on a reset bullpen and the hope that a change of ballparks disrupts Milwaukee's momentum, while the Brewers will look to close out the series as quickly as possible rather than give a resilient Rays club any room to find its footing.
