Brewers Had to Win Game 1 Twice After Replay Overturned the Final Double Play

TL;DR: The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 in World Series Game 1 on Friday, but they had to win it twice. An apparent game-ending double play in the ninth inning was overturned on replay after Cooper Pratt’s foot came off second base too early, turning a 3-1 celebration into a 3-2 lead with runners on second and third. Closer Trevor Megill then struck out Jonny DeLuca to end the game for real, completing Milwaukee’s first World Series victory in 44 years.

The celebration lasted about as long as it takes an umpiring crew to huddle. Megill had induced the grounder, screamed, and watched his teammates pour out of the dugout. Fireworks went off. Then the crew gathered, Tampa Bay challenged, and the ballpark learned that the game it had just won was still being played.

What exactly was overturned?

The force at second base, and only that part of the play. With one out in the ninth, Brice Turang threw to Pratt as Junior Caminero ran toward the bag. Pratt stood on second when the throw left Turang’s hand but lifted his foot too early, the Journal Sentinel reports, so Caminero was safe. Pratt’s relay still beat Liam Hicks at first, which is why the Brewers kept two outs from the play. What they lost was the third out, and with it the win. A run scored on the play, the apparent 3-1 victory became a 3-2 lead, and the Rays had runners on second and third with Jonny DeLuca coming to the plate.

How did the ninth inning get there?

Through a rally Tampa Bay had no business mounting, against a closer who had barely been touched. AP reports the Rays had not put a runner on base since the sixth inning before Jonathan Aranda and Chandler Simpson hit consecutive one-out singles. A double steal involving pinch-runner Jorge Mateo and Simpson moved runners to second and third, and Caminero walked on a 3-2 pitch in the dirt to load the bases. That set up the grounder to Turang, the throw to Pratt, and the footwork that undid the ending. It was the second night in a row this series turned on inches at a bag: Game 2 ended on a check-swing call that became a rule-change argument, and Game 1 nearly ended on a foot that left the bag a fraction early.

What did Megill do while the review played out?

He went back to work in the least glamorous way available. USA Today reports Megill paused on the field, looked at second base umpire James Hoye as Hoye spoke to the New York replay booth, and asked what he was hearing. Hoye’s answer, as Megill recalled it, was not encouraging. Megill kept throwing warm-up pitches while 43,250 people held their breath, assuming the worst once the replay zoomed in on the play at second. Then he had to pitch again, from scratch, with the adrenaline of a celebration already spent. He fell behind DeLuca 2-1, came back with a knuckle-curve for strike two, threw it again below the zone, and watched DeLuca swing and miss. He screamed and stomped off the mound a second time. This time it counted.

What did Pratt and his teammates say?

Pratt owned it immediately, and his teammates covered him just as fast. USA Today reports Pratt ran to Megill after the final out and said thanks for picking him up, then said he felt terrible and wanted the win badly. His promise for the rest of the series was blunt: next time, a step that will stay on that bag. Megill’s answer framed the whole night as Brewers baseball, the idea that when something goes wrong, a teammate picks you up, and he said he expects Pratt to come through big in the next couple of games. Christian Yelich, whose RBI triple in the first inning put Milwaukee ahead for good, called it a big range of emotions and credited Megill for locking back in after the emotional dump. Aaron Ashby, who threw one and two thirds perfect innings and has not allowed a run in 14 postseason innings, called the composure unbelievable.

Why did the clubhouse stay quiet after a World Series win?

Because the win felt like relief rather than triumph, and because the series was far from over. USA Today reports there was no loud music blaring after the game, just relief, and Megill said it plainly: the win means a lot, but it means nothing if the Brewers do not get there, with three more victories still to go. That restraint looks prescient now. Milwaukee went on to take Game 2 as well, and the series heads to Tampa Bay for Game 3 on Monday, where Freddy Peralta faces his former club. The Game 1 story will travel with Pratt, whose next clean play at second will be watched closely, and with Megill, who has now had to close the same game twice. For a franchise waiting since 1982, the first win came with a catch: it had to be earned twice, and the second time was harder. The Brewers’ October has already featured a captain benched for a championship series opener, a rookie trading his own gear to a fan for a one-of-one card, and a pair of throwing errors that decided an NLCS game. Game 1 added the strangest entry yet: a win, a review, and then the win again.