When Cooper Pratt went yard in the top of the 12th inning, that felt like the finishing blow in Game 4 of the World Series for the Milwaukee Brewers. After all, the Tampa Bay Rays have had difficulties scoring runs throughout the entire series, and Milwaukee's bullpen has been lockdown thus far this postseason.
However, the Rays turned the tables on the Brewers in the bottom of the 12th. After Junior Caminero reached base on an error to lead off the inning against Brewers reliever Shane Drohan, the floodgates opened. Tampa Bay strung together four consecutive base hits against Drohan to turn the game on its head — with Ben Williamson recording the walk-off hit with a bloop single to right field to give the Rays the 4-3 win in Game 4.
With Drohan struggling, it was interesting to see the Brewers decide to ride it out instead of having anyone — even potential Game 5 starter Jacob Misiorowski — warming up on the bullpen. But according to manager Pat Murphy, there was no way they were going to burn their ace in a one-run game in extra innings while they're in command of the World Series, as per Curt Hogg of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
At that point, the Brewers were still up 3-0 in the series, so it's not like a loss would prove to be the end of their World Series hopes. Despite blowing the chance to sweep the Rays, they still have, at the minimum, three more chances of closing them out.
Article Continues BelowHaving Misiorowski, their 24-year-old ace, be fresh for Game 5 feels like the Brewers' best chance of closing out the game on the road, and having him come out in relief for Game 4 would have been a needless risk.
Unlike the Rays, the Brewers don't need to throw the kitchen sink just yet, which explains why they ended Game 4 the way they did. But if this proves to be the start of a historic choke job, this decision from Murphy will be second-guessed until the end of time.

