Brewers 3, Rays 2: Megill Had to Finish Game 1 Twice

The double play that was not the last out

October 23, 2026 - Milwaukee - Trevor Megill was already shouting. The Milwaukee Brewers were out of the dugout. Fireworks went off. The Associated Press recap said they even started wheeling the postgame MLB Network stage into foul territory and played Bruce Springsteen's "Glory Days." Then the videoboard showed Cooper Pratt's right foot off the bag.

The call at second came off. Liam Hicks was still out at first. Jorge Mateo had scored. Chandler Simpson stood at third. Junior Caminero stood at second. One out became two, then one again, and the lead was 3-2 instead of 3-1 with nobody on.

Megill struck out Jonny DeLuca swinging on a 2-2 pitch. That one counted. The Brewers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 in World Series Game 1. Milwaukee leads the series 1-0. First World Series game in this building since 1982. Roof closed. 69 degrees. Attendance 43,250. Three hours, nine minutes. First pitch 7:16 p.m.

Milwaukee finished with eight hits, one triple, and no homers. Tampa Bay finished with seven hits, one double, and went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. That is the file.

Yelich's first World Series swing

Nick Martinez had already survived the top of the first. Yandy Díaz flew to Sal Frelick. Jonathan Aranda lined a single. Simpson chopped another. Caminero lined into a double play, David Hamilton to Brice Turang, Aranda dead at second.

Then Milwaukee hit. Jackson Chourio led off with a line-drive single to Victor Mesa Jr.. Jake Bauers flew to Mesa. Christian Yelich ripped one to center. DeLuca dove and did not catch it. Chourio scored. Yelich went to third. The MLB recap called it his first World Series at-bat after entering with the sixth-most career games among active players without one.

William Contreras lined the next one through the left side, deflected by Taylor Walls. Yelich scored. 2-0. Turang struck out swinging. Garrett Mitchell struck out swinging. Two runs, three hits, and the rust argument from a week off was already thinner than it had looked on paper.

"Obviously, you can't replicate a playoff atmosphere and an environment, but we kept the guys in the box seeing pitches," Yelich said in the MLB recap. "Everybody took it upon themselves to make sure they were getting their work in. And once you wake up this morning, you're ready to go."

Five innings, not a mow-down

Jacob Misiorowski opened with a 103.5 mph fastball, the fastest pitch thrown in a World Series, both the MLB recap and the Associated Press recap said. He lasted five: four hits, one earned, one walk, three strikeouts, 78 pitches, 56 strikes. Seven swings and misses, tied for his fewest of the season. The win put him at 1-0. Five innings is not a quality start. Quality start still means six innings and three earned or fewer.

"The adrenaline kind of took over, and I tensed up and threw it hard," Misiorowski said in the Associated Press recap. "Then I settled down, and that was the game plan, to settle in and do me. Don't try and overdo it."

Pat Murphy, in the MLB recap: "What we're used to seeing in the regular season was Miz just mow through people and have two strikeouts an inning. That's unrealistic. This was the best team in the American League. Miz was great."

Tampa Bay's only run off him came in the fourth. Aranda walked. Simpson struck out. Caminero doubled 112.7 mph over Mitchell's head, the MLB recap said. Aranda to third. Hicks grounded to Bauers, Aranda scoring, Caminero to third. 2-1. DeLuca flew to Chourio. Inning over.

The fifth ended on speed that did not pay. Mesa singled. Ben Williamson moved him to second. Walls popped foul to Hamilton. Mesa took off for third with Díaz at the plate. Contreras threw him out. Díaz took a knee in the box, the MLB recap said, with his head down.

"I'm always trying to make something happen," Mesa said in that wrap. "Obviously easy to say now, but it was not the best move."

Martinez left after five: five hits, two earned, no walks, five strikeouts, 73 pitches, 52 strikes, both runs in the first. The loss put him at 1-1. Frelick had singled in the second and gone to second on Hamilton's sacrifice. Chourio struck out. Hamilton doubled in the fifth and was thrown out at third, Mesa to Williamson to Caminero. Martinez had settled. The first inning had already decided his line.

Two caught stealings, then Chourio's third run

Abner Uribe took the sixth. Díaz grounded to Turang. Aranda singled. Simpson struck out swinging, and Contreras caught Aranda stealing second on the same pitch, a hit-and-run that died in a rundown back to the plate. Hold No. 4. Uribe then struck out Caminero and Hicks in the seventh. Aaron Ashby flew DeLuca to Frelick to finish the inning.

Steven Matz had already walked Pratt to open the seventh, then gotten Frelick to line to Simpson and Hamilton to bounce to Walls, Pratt to second. Kevin Kelly inherited that runner. Chourio grounded a single to Mesa. Pratt scored. 3-1. Bauers singled, a fair-or-foul challenge that stood. Chourio to third. Yelich grounded to Aranda. Kelly: one-third of an inning, three hits, no earned of his own, the inherited run on the board.

Ashby covered the eighth: Mesa swinging, Williamson swinging, Ryan Vilade to Pratt. Two-thirds of a seventh and a clean eighth. 1 2/3 innings, no hits, three strikeouts, hold No. 2. Contreras had already thrown out two runners. Murphy called him the player of the game in the MLB recap.

Garrett Cleavinger started the eighth for Tampa Bay after Kelly. Contreras singled. Turang walked. Mitchell bunted into a lineout to Caminero. Pratt grounded into a force, Caminero to Vilade, after Milwaukee challenged first and the force. Cole Sulser got Gary Sánchez to bounce into another force, Caminero to Vilade. Two on, nobody in. The 3-1 stayed 3-1.

Megill, a replay, a real last out

Tampa Bay had not put a runner on since the sixth. Aranda singled to Chourio with one out in the ninth. Simpson singled to Mitchell. The Associated Press recap had Mateo in to run, then a double steal that put Mateo at third and Simpson at second before Caminero walked on a 3-2 pitch in the dirt. Bases loaded.

Hicks bounced to Turang, who ranged left and threw to Pratt. The first ruling was a 4-6-3. Then replay. Alfonso Márquez at the MLB Replay Center changed the out at second, the Associated Press recap said. Mateo scored. Simpson to third. Caminero to second. The Rays had challenged the force and first; the second-base foot came off anyway.

"Once I saw the replay a couple times, I felt like it was going to get overturned," Kevin Cash said in the MLB recap, "then felt good about Jonny going up there against Megill with two outs."

DeLuca struck out swinging. Save No. 5. Megill: one inning, two hits, one earned, one walk, one strikeout, 20 pitches. Aranda finished 3-for-3 with a walk and a run. Simpson went 2-for-4 with a steal. Caminero went 1-for-3 with the double and a walk. Díaz went 0-for-4. Hicks drove in both Tampa Bay runs and still ended 0-for-4.

Chourio went 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI. Contreras went 2-for-3 with a walk, an RBI, and those two caught stealings. Yelich went 1-for-4 with the triple. Milwaukee left eight on. Tampa Bay left four.

"It's good to get the first win out of the way," Megill said in the Associated Press recap. "That's where all the nerves are at."

Pratt, 22, to Megill in that same recap: "I just said, 'Thank you, man. Thanks for picking me up.' That's what this game is. It's a game of pick-me-up. He picked me up today."

Martinez, in the MLB recap: "Both teams do damn near everything very well. One thing about my group is that we're fighters, and we know that about that group, too. And this series is gonna be a dogfight."

Saturday, Rasmussen, Henderson

Game 2 is Saturday night at American Family Field. Drew Rasmussen starts for Tampa Bay. Logan Henderson starts for Milwaukee. The Associated Press recap put Rasmussen at 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA this postseason and Henderson at 0-0 with a 3.00. Neither club has won a World Series. The last time two first-time champions met, that recap said, was 1980.

Cash called his club extremely confident in the Associated Press recap and said the frustration was being one swing from taking the lead. Milwaukee has Game 1. It still needs three more.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Milwaukee at 7 team fantasy points on a 3-2. Tampa Bay sat at 0. Misiorowski had 13 pitching FP on five innings and one earned. That is not a quality start. Ashby had 11.66. Uribe had 9.33. Martinez still scored 9 in a loss because five innings, two earned, and five strikeouts do not vanish. Aranda, Contreras, and Yelich sat at 4 hitting FP. Fantasy points measure the night. Share price is what the market pays. They move together, but they are not the same number. See dynamic pricing.

Track the Brewers and Rays on the marketplace. Information only; not financial advice.

*Sources: MLB.com schedule; MLB Gameday wrap; MLB.com recap; ESPN scoreboard; ESPN box score; ESPN recap; Associated Press recap via ESPN; AthX Engine scoring applied to verified box stats. Information only; not financial advice.*