3 pressing questions for World Series Game 3
The Milwaukee Brewers, before Friday, had not played a World Series game in 44 years. Now they are two wins -- two little wins -- from their first World Series title. The Rays, meanwhile, come back home to Tropicana Field, the home where they have been so successful all year, trying to figure out a way to get back in this series.
Are we nearing a Brewers coronation? Or is this going to be a long series after all? Monday night’s game will tell us. Here are three key questions leading into World Series Game 3.
World Series Game 3: Brewers at Rays (MIL ahead 2-0)
8 p.m. ET, FOX/FOX One
SP: Robert Gasser (MIL) vs. Freddy Peralta (TB)
Can Peralta continue his dominance -- against his former team, no less?
Mets fans might want to cover their eyes a bit here, but seriously, there has been no more dominant pitcher over the last two months than Freddy Peralta. Since Aug. 26, exactly two months ago from today, Peralta is a stunning 7-0 with an 0.89 ERA, with a couple of shiny awards to show for it: AL Pitcher of the Month for September and ALCS MVP. Peralta has turned out to be the absolute October ace many thought he would be at the beginning of the season; he’s just doing it for the Rays, not the Mets.
The Rays, fair to say, desperately need him to save them in Game 3, staring down the barrel of a potential 3-0 deficit. Peralta, of course, has to deal with some extra drama in this game, because he pitched the first eight seasons of his career with the Brewers, making two All-Star Games and appearing in seven different postseason series. Now he may be the last bulwark standing against the Brewers finally bringing a World Series trophy to Milwaukee. Peralta is at the center of everything in this series right now.
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Is the Brewers’ bullpen just untouchable?
The story of this Brewers’ postseason -- and what might end up being the story of their first championship -- is their relentlessness. No lead is safe from their lineup, so it seems like they’re never out of a game. And while it’s true that the Brewers keep finding ways to claw their way back, no matter what deficit you throw in front of them, it’s worth noting what is allowing them to keep coming back in the first place: their bullpen.
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In this series alone, Brewers relievers have thrown 10 innings and given up just one run; it’s the reason that four-run first inning for the Rays in Game 2 didn’t even this series all on its own. For the entire postseason, the Brewers’ bullpen has a 1.24 ERA in 50 2/3 innings, and it’s getting to the point that Aaron Ashby (who has yet to give up a run in 15 2/3 postseason innings) may end up being the clubhouse leader for World Series MVP. If you can’t touch a bullpen, you can’t win a series. And right now, you can’t touch Milwaukee’s bullpen.
Can the Rays clean it up in time?
The Rays play in the best, and probably most expensive, division in baseball, but they won it going away because they played tight, clean baseball throughout the season. They pitch well, they field well, they run the bases well, they make good decisions all around. Well, until this series, anyways. That was especially the case in Game 2. The Rays made fielding miscues (more than their one official error, on first baseman Jonathan Aranda, would indicate); they made mistakes on the basepaths; they were just generally sloppy all around. This has not looked like the Rays we all know and love.
“I guarantee you one thing: that nobody in this clubhouse wants to play the baseball that we've played the last couple days,” Junior Caminero said, and there surely isn’t a Rays fan who doesn’t feel the same way.
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It can be uniquely frustrating to watch a team play a certain way all year and then, on the biggest possible stage, have them play in the exact opposite way, but that is what has happened to the Rays in the World Series. Getting back to the Trop -- where they had the best home record in baseball -- will presumably help. It better. Because if the Rays don’t figure this out soon (really, Monday) the Trop will be where this season will end … with the Brewers popping champagne in the visitors’ clubhouse.