ST. PETERSBURG -- Ben Williamson has resuscitated the Rays.
Tampa Bay was just three outs away from elimination at the hands of the Brewers in Game 4 of the World Series before launching a stunning, 12th-inning rally to prevail 4-3 in a cinematic thriller Tuesday night at Tropicana Field.
With two aboard and Shane Drohan on the hill, Jonny DeLuca drove in the tying run with a single and Chandler Simpson singled to load the bases before Williamson came on as a pinch-hitter and stroked a ground ball to right to score pinch-runner Nick Fortes with the winning run. “Walking on Sunshine” blared on the speakers for a Rays team that somehow escaped the darkness.
There had been 16 previous walk-off wins in World Series history by a team facing elimination. Actually, 13 of them had been in extra innings and six had been in the 11th inning or later like this one. But the only previous team to do it when facing a sweep, like these Rays, was the 1910 Cubs.