The Brewers Were Three Outs From a Title. Then the Rays Won Game 4 on a Baltimore Chop

The Milwaukee Brewers have never won a World Series. On Tuesday night at Tropicana Field they were three outs from it, leading 3-0 in the series, and when rookie Cooper Pratt homered to left to lead off the top of the 12th, the champagne in the visitors' clubhouse probably started sweating on its own.

Then the bottom of the 12th happened. Junior Caminero reached on a throwing error by third baseman Joey Ortiz. The bases loaded. And pinch-hitter Ben Williamson hit a Baltimore chop, a ball that bounces off the plate so high it comes down in a different tax year, into right field. Rays 4, Brewers 3. A sellout of 40,514 went home happy, which in St. Petersburg is a sentence they've waited a long time to print.

It wasn't a home run. It wasn't a double off the wall. It was the ugliest hit in baseball, the kind a Little League coach yells at you for, and it saved a season. There's a lesson there for anybody who's ever overprepared for a job interview.

Keep perspective. The Rays are still down 3-1, and the Brewers won Game 3 by a score of 10-1, which isn't a baseball score so much as a mercy request. Only one team in baseball history has come back from 3-0 in a postseason series, and that was the 2004 Red Sox, who needed a bloody sock, a curse, and the entire state of Massachusetts praying. Tampa Bay has a pinch-hitter and a dome.

But Milwaukee should be nervous. Losing a game you were three outs from winning does something to a man. I knew a fellow who missed a putt on the 18th to win his club championship in 1987. He's in his eighties now and still describes the grass.

Both of these franchises are chasing their first title, so somebody's going to cry this week either way. Game 5 is Wednesday at 8 p.m. Eastern on Fox. The Brewers need one win. The Rays need a miracle and three more Baltimore chops. Baseball, like religion, is mostly people waiting for a bounce.