Rays vs. Brewers MLB World Series Game 2 Live Updates, Results, Highlights and Reaction

There is No Quit in This Team

About five minutes after first pitch, it felt like this game was over. As good as Tampa Bay had been all season, the idea of the Rays blowing a 4-0 first inning lead did not compute.

But the Brewers just chipped and chipped and chipped away.

Two runs in the bottom of the first. One in the fourth. Another in the sixth. The finisher in the seventh.

And, of course, the bullpen was nails.

JoJo Romero, Dustin May, DL Hall, Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby combined for six scoreless innings of relief.

They had to strand three runners at third base and benefited from Brady Williams' beyond-questionable decision to test Jackson Chourio's arm with Liam Hicks' legs, but they put up goose egg after goose egg to keep the Brewers in the game long enough to pull a win out of their hat.

Aaron Ashby for Mayor of Milwaukee

The bullpen as a whole was phenomenal. However, it was, yet again, Aaron Ashby to the rescue.

Even with All-Star closer Trevor Megill ready to go.

Even after allowing a leadoff double in the ninth inning of a one-run game.

Pat Murphy stuck by the southpaw who has been cosplaying as Harry Houdini all October.

Ashby recorded the final five outs, one day after retiring all five batters he faced in Game 1. He has now gone 15.2 scoreless innings this postseason, recording either a win (one), hold (two) or save (three) in each of his last six appearances.

There hasn't been a relief pitcher named World Series MVP since Mariano Rivera in 1999, but things sure do appear to be trending in that direction.

Rays Might Be Facing an Unwinnable Battle

They've got Freddy Peralta going in Game 3. And at 55-26, they tied with Milwaukee for the best home record during the regular season. So, you know, never say never.

But how do you come back from a collapse like that?

With Drew Rasmussen pitching, a 4-0 first inning lead should be a victory darn near 100 out of 100 times.

But after starting out 2-for-3 with runners in scoring position, they went 1-for-11 the rest of the way, the lone hit resulting in an out at the plate.

This win slipped through their fingers like sand from the beaches of Tampa Bay.

The Defense Has to Be Better

Technically, they only committed one error.

But Jonathan Aranda dropped a catchable foul ball in addition to the David Hamilton ground ball that went straight through his wickets. And while Christian Yelich's lazy fly ball to Chandler Simpson was somehow ruled a single, that was definitely an error.

You simply cannot emerge victorious from a best-of-seven series against a team like the Milwaukee Brewers while gifting them bonus outs.

The Simpson gaffe ended up not hurting them, but both of Aranda's misplays led directly to a Brewers run. That was, quite literally, the difference in this game.

The Brewers are 9-1 this postseason, despite trailing at some point in eight of those games.

Cardiac Crew?

We good with that nickname for this resilient squad?

Did Yandy Díaz actually swing at that 3-2 pitch from Trevor Megill?

Is that the next thing that we'll be able to review in Major League Baseball?

Regardless, Milwaukee did not allow a single run in the final eight innings of its improbable comeback victory for a 2-0 World Series lead.

As we noted before the game, the last 17 times the home team won Games 1 and 2 of the World Series, it went on to win the whole shebang.

Can Tampa Bay flip the script? Or is Milwaukee going to finally win its first World Series in Year No. 58 of existence?

If the rest of this series is anywhere near as dramatic as the first two games have been, we cannot wait to find out.

Even with right-handed Jonny DeLuca leading off the inning, it'll be southpaw Aaron Ashby coming back out to start the ninth inning with a 5-4 lead.

After Jackson Chourio and Christian Yelich stole third and second, respectively, William Contreras grounded to Taylor Walls at shortstop for a bang-bang play at the plate.

It sure looked like Chourio may have slid around the tag, which Pat Murphy challenged.

But after instant replay forced the Brewers to get a 28th out in Game 1, it did not go their way this time, either.

After striking out Ryan Vilade and getting Richie Palacios to ground out to second base, let's check in on Aaron Ashby's preposterous postseason line.

14.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 15 K.

Not. Too. Shabby.

Ashby has gone multiple innings in six of his first seven appearances in the postseason.

So...is he coming back out for the ninth inning?

Or is Pat Murphy going to turn the game over to Trevor Megill?

What a whirlwind of a night for the 22-year-old Cooper Pratt.

Terrible error in the top of the first.

Whiffed with two outs and two on in the bottom of the first.

Back-to-back quality defensive plays in the top of the fifth.

And now a colossal, tie-breaking, RBI single in the bottom of the seventh.

Could that be the game-winner? Or are there a few more twists and turns still to come?

Never walk the leadoff guy.

Definitely never walk the leadoff guy when it's the No. 9 hitter.

But despite issuing a free pass to Taylor Walls to lead off the top of the seventh inning, Abner Uribe managed to keep him from scoring and keeping the game tied heading into the seventh inning stretch.

Do stretch at home, too, friends, because it might be a long night.

The two games I covered in the 2025 World Series were the 18-inning Game 3 and 11-inning Game 7. Whatever the opposite of the Midas Touch is for sleep, I've got it.

Even speaking as a 20-year veteran of slow-pitch softball where this kind of nonsense happens all the time, this is a catch that simply has to be made.

Fortunately for Chandler Simpson and the Rays, though, the Brewers were unable to capitalize as William Contreras grounds out to end the inning.

We're all knotted up at 4-4 heading into the seventh inning.

Sal Frelick hit four home runs in the entire season.

His last one came on July 11.

His last home run off a southpaw came on Opening Day.

But he takes Ian Seymour deep to tie the game at 4-4.

Are we headed for a walk-off?

Extra innings?

Both?

Bring it on.

Did Rays third base coach Brady Williams not realize that Jackson Chourio was in left field?

Or that Liam Hicks was the one running?

Maybe he just decided to take a chance with Taylor Walls coming up next?

Either way, that was one of the easier throw outs at the plate that you'll ever see.

(Also, holy biceps on home plate umpire Jim Wolf.)

Victor Mesa Jr. was almost too nonchalant with this sliding grab.

An out's an out, though, and Cam Booser and Tampa Bay got three more of them while maintaining a 4-3 lead.

In case you can't feel it: The drama is building.

To put it lightly, it hasn't been a great night in the field for Jonathan Aranda. But he delivered a well-struck double off Dustin May in the top half of the fifth inning.

He ended up stranded in scoring position, though, as Cooper Pratt—who had that throwing error on the first batter of the game—made two quality plays on slow rollers to keep the score at 4-3.

After allowing four runs in the first inning, Milwaukee has now put four consecutive zeroes on the board.

Christian Yelich—who also struck out with runners on first and third back in the first inning—ends the Brewers' rally with a weak grounder to second base.

It hasn't been a clutch night for the captain, but the beauty of baseball is he has five more innings to potentially change that in a huge way.

With the out, the book is now closed on Drew Rasmussen: 3.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, (3 ER), 2 BB, 4 K.

It wasn't a great night for either starter, but let the bullpen battle begin.

The book isn't closed on Drew Rasmussen just yet, as Kevin Cash gives him the hook with the bases loaded in the fourth inning.

It'll be Cam Booser vs. Christian Yelich in what could be a massive turning point in the ballgame.

Shades of Bill Buckner on that botched ground ball by Jonathan Aranda at first base.

Clearly, he was thinking about stepping on first before firing it home to hopefully cut down Cooper Pratt at the plate. But Aranda forgot a key detail in that sequence: Securing the ball first.

Milwaukee's bullpen has been impenetrable throughout this postseason, so of course the Brewers held the Rays scoreless in the fourth.

JoJo Romero worked around a Jonny DeLuca swinging bunt to keep the deficit at two runs.

Henderson recovered nicely from that brutal first inning, but he hands it over to JoJo Romero and the Brewers bullpen.

Henderson's line: 3.0 IP, 3 H, 4 R (3 ER), 1 BB, 4 K.

Given the way things started out, that's way better than it could have been.

Eight of the first 13 batters of the game reached base, but the bats sure have gone silent since the first inning.

William Contreras' two-out single in the bottom of the third ended a 13-batter drought between hits, but he was left stranded at first.

We had to the fourth with both pitchers already north of 60 pitches.

After all that offense in the first, neither team managed a base hit in the second inning.

Jackson Chourio sure did put Drew Rasmussen to work with that 11-pitch AB to end the inning, though. Could be a short night for him one way or the other.

It can't be easy to keep one's composure after hemorrhaging four runs to the first five batters faced in a World Series game, but Logan Henderson appears to have locked in after that Liam Hicks home run.

Henderson has struck out three of the last six batters faced, putting a goose egg on the board in the top half of the second.

If it feels like you can't remember a World Series game with a first inning quite as offensive as the one we just witnessed, it's because the last time it happened was 33 years ago.

You get a base hit!

You get a base hit!

The Brewers are chipping away at Drew Rasmussen one base at a time. Garrett Mitchell's RBI single makes it a 4-2 ballgame before Cooper Pratt ends the inning with a whiff at 97 MPH heat.

If the next eight innings are anything like the first, I might not survive the night.

Undeterred by Tampa Bay's four spot in the top of the inning, Jackson Chourio and Jake Bauers led off the bottom of the inning with back-to-back singles.

After a Christian Yelich strikeout and a gift from Jonathan Aranda in the form of a dropped foul ball, William Contreras put Milwaukee on the board with an RBI single.

Had Bauers not been running on the 3-2 pitch, it was a tailor-made double play ball. But with Richie Palacios covering second for a possible strike 'em out, throw 'em out situation, the ball bounced just out of his reach.

Liam Hicks hit just four home runs for the Rays after coming over from the Marlins at the trade deadline, and he hadn't had an extra base hit in his last 33 trips to the plate.

He sure did end that drought in emphatic fashion.

Hicks took Logan Henderson 411 feet for a no-doubter to put the Rays ahead by an early 4-0 margin.

With Drew Rasmussen pitching tonight, is this game already over?

It took nine pitches—Chandler Simpson stole second base on the fourth one—but Junior Caminero ripped Logan Henderson's fourth changeup of the AB down the left-field line for an RBI single.

Tampa Bay jumped out to an early 2-0 lead.

Logan Henderson shook off the two-base error to strike out Jonathan Aranda, but slap-hitting aficionado Chandler Simpson delivered the first run of the game, driving in Yandy Díaz.

Rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt committed errors in each of Games 2, 3 and 4 of the NLDS against the San Diego Padres, and he threw away the first ball put in play by Yandy Díaz.

Robin Yount threw out the ceremonial first pitch in Game 1.

Paul Molitor had the honor in Game 2.

But for the actual first pitch, Logan Henderson fired in a 94 MPH four-seamer to Yandy Díaz and Game 2 is officially underway.

It would appear the Brewers bandwagon is approaching critical mass.

Does this include beer sales in Milwaukee? Because that record might never be broken.

Here's hoping there weren't too many Timeless Tickets amid all that merch...

Everyone knows about Jacob Misiorowski, his blistering fastballs and his affinity for Pokémon cards.

But did you know that in Logan Henderson's brief career, the Milwaukee Brewers are a perfect 12-0 when he starts at home?

Tonight could be the night that the world finds out about this star in the making.

"Fastball Freddy" won't be pitching tonight, so he was posing for pictures pregame with fans of his former employer.

He'll be on the bump for Game 3 back in the Trop. And should this series go the distance, there's a good chance he'd be the starter in Game 7.

We'll see if Milwaukee still loves him then.

For the home team, no changes to the starting nine.

Prior to Game 1, Christian Yelich hadn't batted third since August 3. But he had a massive RBI triple in the first inning, so Pat Murphy won't risk messing with a good thing.

Logan Henderson had a 2.19 ERA over his final 12 starts of the regular season, but he did get roughed up a bit in Game 2 of the NLCS, allowing four runs. Can he give the Brew Crew four or five solid innings before handing it off to a dominant bullpen?

For the most part, the visiting Rays are running it back again with the same lineup as they deployed in Game 1. The only difference is that Richie Palacios replaces Ben Williamson at second base and will be batting sixth.

They'll be banking on Drew Rasmussen to put up a lot of zeroes tonight. Since the All-Star Break, he has made 15 starts with a 1.73 ERA. Tampa Bay has gone 14-1 in those starts, though the lone loss did come in Game 1 of the ALCS.