Rays on brink of World Series elimination after brutal showing in Game 3

Marc Topkin, Tampa Bay Times on Oct 26, 2026

Published in Baseball

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TAMPA, Fla. — Talking before Monday’s third game of the World Series, Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash made the first step to climbing out of a two-games-to-none deficit sound so reasonably doable.

Score some early runs, get the Tropicana Field sold-out crowd behind them, have starter Freddy Peralta pitch deep into the game and walk off with a win.

Instead, the Rays played their way to the brink of a massive disappointment, with an ugly — and that would be the polite, family friendly description — 10-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.

Now the Rays not only have to battle a Milwaukee team that has looked every bit the better, and relentlessly so, but also history.

None of the 25 teams that have fallen behind 3-0 in best-of-seven World Series play have come back to win and only four even forced a Game 5.

In all best-of-seven baseball playoffs, 43 teams have gone up 3-0 and only one, the 2004 Boston Red Sox against the New York Yankees, came back to win.

(The Rays nearly made it two in the 2020 American League Championship Series, when they took a 3-0 lead over the Houston Astros in the series played in San Diego as a neutral site due to pandemic restrictions then lost the next three but rallied to win Game 7.)

Nothing, as you could probably ascertain, went the way the Rays planned, as they were held to three hits for the night and were on the wrong side of an eight-run inning.

Peralta, who had a 7-0 record and 0.89 ERA over his previous 10 outings, was not sharp and it showed from the start. He allowed two singles in a 22-pitch first inning and needed catcher Nick Fortes throwing out a runner and left fielder Chandler Simpson making a spectacular catch before crashing hard into the wall in the second.

But the Brewers broke through for two runs in the third, then broke the game open with an eight-run fifth inning.

Peralta started the mess, loading the bases with two outs before being lifted, having allowed seven hits and three walks.

And it got considerably worse from there.

Lefty Cam Booser, who has been one of the Rays’ most successful relievers through the postseason (seven scoreless outings, one hit), allowed four consecutive hits that yielded six runs. Cole Sulser replaced him and allowed hits to his first two batters that produced two more runs.

Though it likely didn’t feel that way to the Rays, it actually went quickly, as the eight runs scored in a 17-pitch span.

The seven consecutive two-out hits (including Peralta’s last batter) were the most in a World Series game. And it was only the second time in postseason history a team scored at least eight runs with two outs. The Dodgers did it in Game 3 of the 2020 National League Championship Series against Atlanta.

Meanwhile, the Rays offense started with Yandy Diaz ripping a leadoff single off lefty Robert Gasser. That was it until one out in the ninth, when Cedric Mullins reached on an infield single and Diaz followed with an RBI double.

Gasser (who worked six innings), Antonio Senzatela and Brandon Woodruff shut the Rays down, allowing the three hits and one walk while striking out five.

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