Welcome to Staten News — where a ground ball that barely left the dirt just bought Tampa Bay one more night.
Cooper Pratt had the Brewers three outs from a championship. The rookie shortstop led off the top of the 12th with a solo homer off Ian Seymour, and Milwaukee led 3-2 at Tropicana Field.
Then the bottom of the 12th happened.
⚾ Game 4: Rays 4, Brewers 3 (12 innings)
Joey Ortiz's throwing error put Junior Caminero on third. Jonny DeLuca's grounder scored pinch-runner Cedric Mullins to tie it. Chandler Simpson singled to load the bases, and pinch-hitter Ben Williamson hit a ball that bounced into right field to score pinch-runner Nick Fortes. Shane Drohan took the loss.
Williamson called it a "Baltimore chop." Tampa Bay will take it.
The game ran 4 hours and 20 minutes and sat tied at 2 from the fifth inning to the 12th. Simpson robbed Garrett Mitchell with a leaping catch at the left-field wall, Brice Turang turned a double play on a 101.8 mph liner from Jonathan Aranda, and the Rays ran seven pitchers out, with the bullpen covering eight innings of one-run ball. Milwaukee's Aaron Ashby kept his own streak going, stretching his record run to 18 straight scoreless relief innings.
Milwaukee's eight-game postseason winning streak is over. The Brewers still lead 3-1.
🔨 Monday Was the Other Kind of Night
Game 3 was never close. The Brewers won 10-1 behind an eight-run fifth inning, out-hitting Tampa Bay 16 to 3. Robert Gasser got the win, Freddy Peralta took the loss, and the Rays didn't score until the ninth.
That's what makes Tuesday interesting for anyone holding a series price. Twenty-four hours after a 16-hit night, Milwaukee managed three runs in 12 innings. Tampa Bay's bullpen did that, not luck.
Because the math still belongs to Milwaukee. The Rays became the 11th team to force a Game 5 after falling behind 0-3, per MLB.com. No World Series team has ever come all the way back from 0-3. Possible tonight? Sure. Likely? The Brewers need one win in three tries.
Game 5 is tonight at 8 p.m. ET on FOX.
🏀 Knicks: Win Number One
Knicks 111, Pistons 97 at the Garden, and New York finally got off zero.
It didn't start that way. Detroit led 38-25 after one quarter. The Knicks won the second by 14 to lead 51-50 at the half, then turned the game in the third, outscoring Detroit 37-13 to go up 88-63. Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 27 points.
Jalen Brunson scored 23 on a rough night: 5-of-18 from the field, 0-for-5 from three, and 16 free-throw attempts doing the heavy lifting. Detroit shot 42% from the field and 24% from three, with Duncan Robinson, Javonte Green and Daniss Jenkins combining to go 4-for-22 from deep.
Paul Reed led Detroit with 22 points and 9 rebounds. Cade Cunningham went for 19, 9 and 8. The Pistons cut it to 11 with about two and a half minutes left and got no closer. Detroit falls to 3-1 with its first loss. The Knicks are 1-3.
One win doesn't fix a start like this. A 37-13 quarter against a team that hadn't lost yet is at least a sign the switch exists.
🏈 Monday Night: Dallas Didn't Need to Throw
Cowboys 38, Eagles 21 in Philadelphia. Javonte Williams ran for a career-high 155 yards and a 2-yard touchdown, the most rushing yards by a Cowboy in a game since Ezekiel Elliott's 159 in Week 15 of 2016. Dallas ran 38 times for 204 yards as a team.
Dak Prescott threw for 212 yards and three touchdowns, and Philadelphia's defense finished with zero sacks, zero tackles for loss and zero quarterback hits. Read that again. Zero.
Tanner McKee started at quarterback for the Eagles and went 23-of-35 for 211 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Saquon Barkley, back after missing two games, ran 7 times for 62 yards and a touchdown. Rookie Makai Lemon's first career touchdown put Philly up 21-20 in the third. Dallas answered with a CeeDee Lamb touchdown and a two-point conversion and never trailed again.
The Eagles are 2-5. Dallas is 3-4 and now sits ahead of them in the NFC East. That's not a rivalry game anymore. That's a division standings problem with ten games left for Philadelphia to fix it.
This is the night the World Series either ends in Florida or turns into a series Milwaukee has to sweat.
Sources: MLB.com Game 4 recap, Baseball-Reference Game 3 box score, Yahoo Sports Knicks-Pistons recap, Eagles game recap
— The Bandicoots ⚾🏀🏈