ST. PETERSBURG — Game 4 of the World Series at Tropicana Field on Tuesday night was a great encapsulation of why baseball is the best. Twelve tight innings. Multiple potential heroes. Records set. This wild game had everything.

And in the end, the result – a 4-3 Rays win over the Brewers in 12 innings – guaranteed at least one more World Series game for all of us to enjoy this year.

Let’s dig in.

Resilient Rays
• The Rays became the fifth team to force a Game 5 in the World Series when down 3-0, joining the 2024 Yankees, 1970 Reds, 1937 Giants and 1910 Cubs. None of the previous four forced a Game 6.

• Overall, the Rays are the 44th team to fall behind 3-0 in any best-of-seven postseason series and just the 11th of those to avoid a sweep. Of the 10 previous teams that forced a Game 5, four also forced a Game 6, two forced a Game 7 and just one (the 2004 Red Sox in the American League Championship Series) came all the way back to win the series.

• But they didn’t just win. The Rays won in walk-off fashion in the 12th inning. It was the 17th walk-off win by a team facing elimination in World Series history. It was the first since the 2011 Cardinals at the hands of David Freese in Game 6 — on the same date, Oct. 27. The only other team to walk off facing a World Series sweep was the aforementioned 1910 Cubs. Of the 17 wins, 14 came in extras, with four going 12 innings.

• There has not been a sweep in the World Series since the Giants swept the Tigers in 2012. The current streak of 14 consecutive World Series with no sweeps extends the longest in history.

Feeling 22
• The young duo of Cooper Pratt and Jackson Chourio continues to shine on the biggest stage for the Brewers. Pratt’s tiebreaking home run in the 12th was the 29th in extra innings in World Series history. It’s the first of those by a rookie. The home run was also the latest by innings in a potential World Series clincher.

• It wasn’t just the homer, though. Pratt tallied four hits, becoming the first rookie with four hits in a potential World Series clincher, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. That also means that the day after Chourio, at 22 years and 229 days, became the youngest player with a four-hit World Series game since Joe Garagiola in 1946, his teammate Pratt, at 22 years and 70 days, claimed that distinction for himself.

• Chourio, meanwhile, became the 10th player with multiple hits in each of the first four games of a World Series and the second in the past 40 years, joining 2000 Todd Zeile. At 22 years old, he’s the youngest to do it. Chourio’s 10 hits are tied for the most in the first four games of a World Series with Babe Ruth in 1928.

• The two hits brought Chourio to 31 in his postseason career, in 24 games. That put him past Andruw Jones’ 30 — in 45 games — for the most hits in postseason history before turning 23.

The record-setter
• The scoreless wonder Aaron Ashby added to his ledger with another 2 1/3 innings, all scoreless. He’s up to 18 scoreless innings, the most consecutive scoreless frames within a postseason by a reliever. He passed Andrew Miller’s 16-inning streak in 2016.

• Ashby is the only pitcher in postseason history to get at least five outs in six or more consecutive appearances and not allow a run in any of them. He has now done it in seven straight appearances.