ST. PETERSBURG -- As the Rays’ rally unfolded in the 12th inning of Game 4 at Tropicana Field on Tuesday night, manager Kevin Cash turned to Ben Williamson with a simple message: “Get ready to hit.”
Cash specifically meant that Williamson would pinch-hit for Victor Mesa Jr., who was due up with the bases loaded and the score tied. Williamson couldn’t help but laugh.
“I was thinking, ‘Yeah, I’ve been ready to hit since the fourth or fifth inning,’” Williamson said.
His chance finally came in the 12th, the type of moment kids dream about while playing this game in the backyard: World Series Game 4, tie game, season on the line, sold-out crowd roaring, bases loaded. And Williamson delivered Tampa Bay’s biggest hit of the year, chopping a walk-off single over the right side of the infield that delivered the Rays a 4-3 victory over the Brewers and kept them alive to fight another day in Game 5 on Wednesday night at the Trop.
“The mindset of the team is to be ready when your name's called, and that's what's made us good the whole year,” Williamson said. “And to be able to come through in a spot like that felt good.”
As Tuesday night gave way to early Wednesday morning inside the Trop, the Rays became the 17th team to pull out a walk-off win in the World Series when facing elimination. The last team to do it? The 2011 Cardinals, thanks to a David Freese walk-off that lives forever in Major League history.
Thanks to Williamson’s walk-off hit, the Rays can still achieve baseball immortality. Nobody in World Series history has fallen into a 3-0 hole and come back to even force a Game 6, much less win a championship.
The Rays have a chance. And now, after a game that finally felt like their brand of baseball, they have a little momentum on their side.
“It's a pretty cool position we're in, and it's a special opportunity that we have,” center fielder Jonny DeLuca said. “We're just going to take it one day at a time and just be in the moment. We love the position we're in.”
It was a funny thing to say, especially considering the Rays were three outs from being swept not long before DeLuca stepped into the interview room inside Tropicana Field.
After a back-and-forth battle between both bullpens that taxed Tampa Bay’s pitching staff and left Cash’s Game 5 plans in flux, the Brewers took the lead in the 12th on Cooper Pratt’s leadoff homer off left-hander Ian Seymour. Milwaukee’s first World Series championship was within reach.
“Nobody came in hanging their heads,” Cash said. “It was just about, ‘How do we get one across?’ And then, ‘How do we get the second one across?’”
Indeed, the Rays maintained their belief. DeLuca said “the entire bench” was hyping up the hitters after Pratt’s homer. Williamson singled out veteran leader Nick Martinez for instilling a mindset in their less experienced players: “Never give up. Never give in.”
Then came the rally, a classic case of good things happening when you put the ball in play, authored by the most contact-oriented lineup in the Majors all season.
“Just credit them. Like, look what they did,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “They put it in play when they needed to.”
It began with Junior Caminero reaching safely on an errant throw by Joey Ortiz. The Rays didn’t want to burn a pinch-runner in Caminero’s spot until he was in scoring position, and he got there quickly on Liam Hicks’ opposite-field single off lefty Shane Drohan.
Cedric Mullins took over at third for Caminero, who hobbled into the dugout but is expected to be fine. DeLuca fell behind in the count and started looking for anything he could put in play. He got a cutter down and away, and he smacked it to center for the game-tying single.
“Just taking the small victories, being able to put pressure [on them in] any way. I feel like that's what happens in the playoffs, you're able to put pressure on the guys,” DeLuca said.
“In that situation, we did that and ended up on top.”
That has been a staple of the Rays’ success all season, and it continued after DeLuca. With runners on first and second, Chandler Simpson attempted to bunt until he ran into a two-strike count, then swatted a single to center that loaded the bases as pinch-runner Nick Fortes wisely stopped at third.
Up came Williamson, the 14th and final position player to enter the game for the Rays, known for an “elite” ability to make contact, specifically to the right side of the field. And he was ready to swing right away.
Williamson bashed the first pitch he saw into the turf and bounced it into right field, where he was soon joined by a mob of Rays teammates celebrating a win that gave them one more chance to take the field together.
“Innings like that can create a lot of momentum for a team,” Cash said. “... We pieced together a big inning, maybe the most important inning of our season.”