Brewers 5, Rays 4: eight zeros give the comeback room

Tampa Bay scored four times before Milwaukee came to bat. It did not score again. That second fact gave the Brewers time to turn a rough first inning into a 5-4 victory Saturday and a two-games-to-none World Series lead.

Sal Frelick's sixth-inning homer tied Game 2. Cooper Pratt's single in the seventh drove in Brice Turang with the run that separated the teams. Aaron Ashby then secured the final five outs, striking out Yandy Díaz swinging to end the ninth.

The comeback began immediately, even if the lead took much longer. William Contreras and Garrett Mitchell each singled in a run in the bottom of the first. Those two hits answered half of Tampa Bay's opening burst, which included RBI singles by Chandler Simpson and Junior Caminero followed by Liam Hicks' two-run homer.

One run at a time

Milwaukee added its third run in the fourth when David Hamilton reached on first baseman Jonathan Aranda's fielding error and Pratt scored. That was an error, not another run-scoring hit. Frelick's solo shot in the sixth erased the remaining deficit. Pratt's line-drive single to right in the next inning supplied Milwaukee's only lead.

The Brewers finished with 11 hits but left 12 runners on base. This was not an evening when every opportunity became a run. The value of the pitching was that Milwaukee could leave chances unfinished and still have a game to recover.

Six innings from the bullpen

Logan Henderson allowed all four Tampa Bay runs but completed three innings, keeping the Rays off the board in the second and third. Dustin May, DL Hall, JoJo Romero, Abner Uribe and Ashby combined for six scoreless relief innings. Uribe earned the win; Ashby the save.

The distinction matters: eight scoreless innings for the team after the first, six from its relievers. Together, they made a two-run response and three later single-run innings enough. The Rays' seven hits produced all their runs before that stretch began.

Milwaukee still needed a difficult final out. Díaz came up with the tying run at third in the ninth, but Ashby's strikeout left it there. The Brewers have won two close games at home, not the championship. They need two more victories.

Game 3 is Monday, October 26, at 8 p.m. Eastern in Tampa Bay, on FOX. The series changes cities with Milwaukee ahead 2-0.