When it rains, it pours, but Tampa Bay Rays reliever Cam Booser found himself caught in a monsoon without an umbrella.
The Rays, fighting to keep their World Series hopes alive down 2-0 in the series on Monday night to the Milwaukee Brewers, turned to Booser in the fifth inning to keep the game close. The Rays were down 2-0 at the time with the bases loaded and two outs.
Instead of escaping the jam, Booser ended up on the wrong side of history. The Brewers became the first team to score eight runs with two outs in a World Series inning, and Booser allowed four of those runs. He was blunt about his nightmarish outing.
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“Worst feeling in the world, feeling like you let your team down,” Booser said after the team’s 10-1 loss.
Initially, it looked as though Booser might escape the jam unscathed, as he worked Brice Turang into a 2-2 count. But the Brewers second baseman lined a single off shortstop Taylor Walls’ glove and into the outfield, giving Milwaukee a 4-0 lead.
“I’d like to have that one back. Those are plays that you’d like to make, that you expect to make even though they may be on the tougher end,” Walls said. “That was pretty much the turning point in the game there.”
One pitch later, center fielder Garrett Mitchell sent a ground ball through the left side of the infield, driving in Willson Contreras and extending Milwaukee’s lead to 5-0.
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Brewers shortstop Cooper Pratt continued Milwaukee’s rally, swinging at Booser’s first pitch and ripping a ground ball just inside the third-base line, past a diving Junior Caminero. Turang and Mitchell both scored, extending the Brewers’ lead to 7-0.
In just three pitches, Booser allowed three consecutive hits.
Brewers right fielder Sal Frelick worked the count to 3-1 before lining Booser’s 95 mph fastball down the left-field line for an RBI double that brought home Pratt.
After allowing four consecutive hits without recording an out, Rays manager Kevin Cash removed Booser from the game. The Rays now trail 3-0 in the series, facing long odds of mounting a comeback.
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Among 25 previous teams that fell behind 3-0 in a World Series, 21 were swept and four lost in five games. Of 43 teams to trail 3-0 in any best-of-seven postseason matchup, only the Boston Red Sox against the New York Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series rebounded to win.
“It’s kind of that chip and a chair mentality,” Cash said. “We’ve got a seat at the table. We’ve got to do something with the chip. Obviously the only thing we can do is win tomorrow.”
The Rays will look to extend their season one more day on Tuesday, when they play the white-hot Brewers at 8 p.m. ET on FOX.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
