The Rays Are Down, But Not Out, As The World Series Heads To Tampa Bay

MILWAUKEE — The plastic sheets are already in the visitors’ clubhouse at American Family Field. The setup is a clear sign that preparations are underway for postgame celebrations, often associated with playoff clinches or milestone wins. The protective coverings help shield lockers and equipment from champagne showers and other celebratory messes, suggesting that the visiting team is on the verge of a significant achievement. They’re hanging from the ceiling, rolled up and waiting to be released for a champagne celebration that, for now, belongs to no one. For the Rays to be the ones to use them, they would have to win four of their next five games and drag this World Series back to Milwaukee. On Saturday night, the rest of their clubhouse sat in total silence, the plastic sheets a distant afterthought, staring down a 2-0 series deficit against the relentless Brewers. “I guarantee you, nobody in this clubhouse wants to play the baseball that we’ve played the last couple of days,” Rays third baseman Junior Caminero said. “That’s not who we are.” In the first inning of Tampa Bay’s 5-4 loss to Milwaukee, the Rays jumped out to an early 4-0 lead against right-hander Logan Henderson. Left fielder Chandler Simpson and Caminero laced a pair of RBI singles before catcher Liam Hicks crushed a two-run home run to right field — all before Henderson had recorded the second out of the first inning. The Rays had stolen the momentum and silenced the sold-out crowd of 43,245 before the Brewers even stepped up to the plate. The Rays felt comfortable putting up a four spot for their ace’s start day. Perhaps against any other opponent, Drew Rasmussen would’ve carried the Rays’ early run support to a World Series win. But these were the feisty, never-say-die Brewers, the team with the best record in the majors this year. They were never going down without a fight. Four early runs were not enough. Rasmussen struggled immediately out of the gate. His command wasn’t as sharp as it had been throughout this postseason. But, other than that, he thought he threw plenty of quality pitches. The only problem was Milwaukee’s elite approach at the plate. They fought to get into hitters’ counts, found holes, and got right back into the game, scoring two runs off Rasmussen in the bottom of the first inning to slash their deficit in half. Rasmussen’s outing was over after just 3 ⅔ innings. He gave up three earned runs on six hits, allowed two walks and struck out four batters across 89 pitches. “We’re going to have to dig deep and we’re going to have to compete from here on out,” Rasmussen said. “I think we understand what’s in front of us and what it’s going to take. But obviously we’d like to be in a better situation.” Rasmussen was supposed to be Tampa Bay’s stopper. The Rays bucked tradition, which typically features the team’s top starter toeing the rubber for World Series Game 1, and pushed Rasmussen’s start day back by one day to give him an extra day of rest ahead of his Game 2 start. The right-hander entered Saturday having thrown the most innings (21) among all pitchers this postseason. The way the Rays saw it, with Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski starting Game 1, they might as well push Rasmussen to Game 2 in hopes of evening up the series that way. Plus, pushing Rasmussen back allowed them to avoid Freddy Peralta pitching at American Family Field, the place the right-hander had called home for eight years. After getting traded from the Brewers to the Mets before the 2026 season, and getting traded again in the middle of the summer at the deadline, Peralta’s new home is Tropicana Field. Throughout his career, he owns a 3.53 ERA when he’s pitching at home, compared to a 4.25 ERA when he’s pitching on the road. No matter how much the Rays strategized these first two games of the World Series, the Brewers have found ways to erase any advantage Tampa Bay may believe it has. “It is frustrating,” Rays designated hitter Yandy Diaz said. “We had to do our job and score more runs to help out the pitchers. We weren’t able to do that. It is what it is.” We have yet to see the Rays play their brand of baseball in this World Series. After playing clean all year, and committing zero errors in the ALCS against the Guardians, we expected more sharp defense and elite fundamental baseball in the Fall Classic. But, after uncharacteristic poor decision making on the basepaths in Game 1, we saw more sloppiness in Game 2. First baseman Jonathan Aranda committed a fielding error that allowed the Brewers to score their third run of Game 2. Simpson dropped a call after initially catching it in left field. Right fielder Victor Mesa Jr., typically sure-handed, fumbled a ball a few times before throwing it into the infield in Game 1. All of this might seem like nit-picking, but that’s the standard Tampa Bay has created. High expectations demand high results. After Saturday’s loss, Rays outfielder Cedric Mullins went around the clubhouse and sat down with some of his teammates at their lockers to talk about it. He wanted to let Simpson and Mesa know, in particular, that there was no isolated incident on their part that led to the loss. “The energy and the intensity needs to be consistent from start to finish,” Mullins told me. “I feel like we were possibly a little in and out today. It’s going to be important to just keep that same vibe moving forward. The main thing I want to make sure is that their thoughts and attitudes towards what’s going on are positive moving forward. “These are tough games where we’ve had opportunities to seal the game for us and we just did not take the full advantage. So I’m just letting guys know, this being the world stage, we gotta continue to find a way to keep chipping away. We didn’t find a way to scratch any more runs on the board. Those are the things that we just witnessed today are going to be important moving forward.” Caminero, for his part, tried to pump up his teammates in the dugout during the game. The third baseman also noticed that the team’s energy was low, so he tried to stay positive and help get their heads back up. He told his teammates that the only thing they need to focus on is getting outs. Against a team like Milwaukee, if they give them outs, the Brewers will make them pay, Caminero said. “Some players haven’t played at this stage, so I understand the pressure they might feel,” Caminero said of his pep talk. “Me, personally, I’ve played at similar stages at this point in my career, so I feel comfortable in certain ways. But at this point, we just gotta win. Flip the page. “For me, I already forgot about these last two days. The series for me now starts on Monday.” This is hardly the Rays’ first time being backed into a corner. They were down 2-0 against the White Sox in the best-of-five ALDS. They won all three of their next do-or-die games to advance. Now they’ll have to lean into that recent experience to save their season from ending in heartbreak. “We’re down 2-0, but we haven’t lost the World Series,” Diaz said. “There’s still work to do.”