Brewers 3, Rays 2. Megill gets the last out after replay keeps Tampa Bay alive.

Trevor Megill had to finish Game 1 after replay gave Tampa Bay another chance. With the tying run at third and the go-ahead run at second, he struck out Jonny DeLuca swinging to secure Milwaukee's 3-2 win Friday at American Family Field. The Brewers lead the World Series one game to none.

Milwaukee entered the ninth ahead 3-1. After Yandy Díaz grounded out, Jonathan Aranda and Chandler Simpson singled and Junior Caminero walked. Tampa Bay had loaded the bases against Megill with only one out, turning a controlled evening into a test of the last few pitches.

Liam Hicks hit a grounder that went from Brice Turang to Cooper Pratt to Jake Bauers. The Rays challenged both the force play at second and the play at first. The force call was overturned; the out at first stood. Jorge Mateo scored, Simpson reached third and Caminero reached second. There were two outs, not three. DeLuca's strikeout was the ending that counted.

The insurance run became the margin

Jackson Chourio's single in the seventh looks more important in that light. It scored Pratt and moved Milwaukee's lead from one run to two. Hicks' ninth-inning groundout could then narrow the deficit without tying the game. What had looked like additional breathing room became the difference in the final score.

The Brewers had done their first damage immediately. Christian Yelich tripled home Chourio in the bottom of the first, then William Contreras singled Yelich in for a 2-0 lead. Tampa Bay answered in the fourth when Hicks grounded out to score Aranda. Neither club scored again until Chourio's seventh-inning hit.

Milwaukee finished with eight hits to Tampa Bay's seven. Neither team committed an error. Those totals describe a close game, but the sequencing explains the result: two early Milwaukee runs, a timely addition in the seventh and one final strikeout after Tampa Bay forced the ninth to continue.

Three quiet innings before the difficult one

Jacob Misiorowski earned the win with five innings of one-run pitching. He allowed four hits and one walk, struck out three and threw 78 pitches. Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby followed with a combined three scoreless innings, allowing one hit, walking none and striking out five.

That work delivered a two-run lead to Megill. His inning was far less comfortable: two hits, a walk and a run allowed before the save. Milwaukee does not need to pretend the finish was clean to value it. Tampa Bay put the potential lead on base, won a consequential replay challenge and still could not get the last hit it needed. Game 1 belongs to the Brewers.