Two teams that have spent an entire season coming back from the brink…came back from the brink multiple times Tuesday night. Here is the play by play as it happened.

Milwaukee Brewer starter Dustin May looks unhittable…unless his defense decides to stop playing behind him. What is center fielder Garrett Mitchell thinking? One: A high looper in front of you won’t go to the wall even if you miss it. Two: It’s the World Series. Three: Your pitcher is throwing a no-hitter. Four: Sal Friggin Frelick would’ve dove for that. The Brewers get Liam Hicks on a force play at second on a liner by Jonny DeLuca, but Chandler Simpson drives in DeLuca a couple of pitches later. 1-0 Tampa Bay.

Jackson Chourio gets on by…going the other way with the pitch. Christian Yelich used to do that. Jake Bauers tried but the ballpark was just too big to hold it as DeLuca ran it down in left center.

DeLuca sells out in the top of the fourth -unlike Mitchell- and dives to his right to snare a side winding liner off the bat of William Contreras.

Frelick gets on. Cooper Pratt has been one of the few to have success pulling the ball. Why is Chandler Simpson in the gap? His positioning allows Frelick to score all the way from first. 1-1.

Jax bounces a curve ball and Hicks can’t handle it because he’s got the left leg out and his body turned slightly toward the second baseman. Any ball that hits his chest protector is bound to go right. It does and Pratt motors over to third.

Romero comes in in the fourth inning. Hamilton makes a bad decision trying to reach Junior Caminero, who’s running in front of him at the time. That attempt means Jonny DeLuca can basically walk to first base. That Hamilton then tries to get DeLuca at first and throws the ball away allows Caminero to score. 2-1 Tampa Bay.

Hamilton gets some high cheese and puts it in the seats in right centerfield. 2-2.

Rays manager, Kevin Cash brings in Kevin Kelly. Then Pat Murphy brings in Abner Uribe. Both do their jobs in the fifth.

Nick Martinez takes the hill for the top of the sixth. Victor Martinez Jr. goes to right for “improved defense” according to announcer Joe Davis. Davis has apparently missed all of the bobbles and stupidity that Martinez Jr. has been engaged in.

Uribe is back. It seems like a reach to ask him for another inning. Yandy Diaz is still stepping in a giant bucket, but he gets a hit to right. Jonathan Aranda smokes one, but right to Brice Turang playing a very deep second base/shallow right field. Diaz isn’t that far off the bag, but it’s far enough. Turang doubles him up with a throw behind him to Bauers covering. Caminero then grounds out to Turang.

Nick Martinez shuts down the Rays in the seventh, with Turang getting an assist on every play.

Bottom of seven: Lefty DL Hall gets two quick outs before Simpson chops one to short that Pratt can’t handle. Hall hasn’t given up a stolen base in two years. Simpson leads the bigs in stolen bases. Mesa Jr. grounds out to third. Still 2-2.

Top 8: closer, Bryan Baker is in. He does his job. 2-2.

Megill comes in to relieve Hall in the bottom of the eighth. Diaz strikes out. 2-2.

John Smoltz does a great job identifying how Milwaukee focuses on the process and not on the victory. I don’t know why people bash him. He’s usually on the money. So saying, he says the Rays are trying to get to Game 6. Uh. Duh. But, they need to get to Game 5 first.

Cooper Pratt likes changeups. Base hit to left. Garrett Mitchell just misses hitting one out to left. Chandler Simpson runs back and jumps to catch it at the fence. Who says you have to look at the ball when you try to catch it?

Andrew Vaughn up. One at-bat in the World Series. Two outs. One on. Off-speed strike one. Pratt draws a throw. Then he takes off. Hicks’ throw tails to the right again, but this time, it works as Palacios snags it and catches Pratt on the hand. Pratt’s hand twists with the contact. Or does it? Pratt is called safe on the field. FUBO is once again unable to play this content. Good lord. It’s 2026, not 1996.

The appeal to New York comes back in the Rays’ favor.

Aaron Ashby comes in to start the ninth. 15.2 innings without a run in the postseason.

It doesn’t get better than this. Ashby’s first pitch looked like a strike. Contreras doesn’t appeal. Count goes to 3-1. Doesn’t matter. Ashby skims the bottom of the strike zone as Aranda can’t decide whether to swing or not. Ashby is as accurate as anyone I’ve ever seen. Only a fraction of the ball touches the strike zone. A grounder to third makes it a 1-2-3 inning and Ashby goes down in history with 16.2 scoreless.

Top of 10. Tyler Wells is in for Tampa Bay. Joey Ortiz now up to the plate after being a late-inning defensive replacement. Pop up.

Jackson Chourio with his nine hits: smoked to straightaway center. Two outs.

Jake Bauers crushed the Dodgers in the NLCS. Wells is throwing gyroballs with a foot of movement. Pops up down the third-base line. Hicks has it all the way and then looks at Caminero as the ball falls to the ground. This is where goats are made.

But, no. Bauers strikes out.

Ashby’s out again. Can he do it again?

DeLuca grounds out. Simpson hits a chopper to Ashby. Ashby steps off the mound and throws one 96 to Bauers. Two out. Mesa Jr. swings at one in the dirt. Contreras throws him out at first.

Top of 11. Wells in again. Yelich gets under another one. Pop up. Contreras goes down.

Cam Booser returns as the entire Rays bullpen tries to make amends for the meltdown that was Game 3.

He walks Turang. Liam Hicks keeps getting challenges and keeps getting them wrong. The rule in the postseason is you get a new challenge every inning. A chunk of mound comes up that’s the size of a dinner plate. Never seen that before.

Booser’s first pitch to Frelick is a good four inches inside and called a strike. Frelick does not challenge. After fouling one off his knee, he strikes out on a check swing.

Ashby’s out for a third inning. Now or never I guess. If Tampa Bay can get a run and win the game, Milwauikee’s bullpen looks wrecked for a Game 5.

Richie Palacios goes after a pitch just below the zone and strikes out. Kelly brings in Antonio Senzatela. he faces Tyler Walls, who has been a goose-egg machine at the plate. He misses the bunt and then swings through a 97 mph heater. Senzatela hangs a 91 mph slider Right. Down. The. Middle. Walls can only look at it. Two outs.

That brings up Diaz. Senzatela goes 3-0 to him and then gets a slider in for a strike. Diaz walks and then is removed for pinch-runner, Jorge Mateo with two outs. Aranda is up and hasn’t had a hit all day. Mateo does not try to steal. The pitch is a strike. Mateo finally steals, but Aranda flies out to shallow right.

Top 12. Ian Seymour was great to start the playoffs. The Brewers have been very happy to see him each time out. Tampa Bay is running out of guys. Seymour is winging them up to the plate at 85 mph. Pratt puts a hanger the one place Simpson can’t reach it: in the left centerfield seats. 3-2 Brewers.

Somewhere, there is a kid running up and down the hallway of his parent’s house screaming and laughing and screaming some more.

Seymour is screaming too…on the inside.

Eleven pitches later, Chourio joins Babe Ruth as the first rookie to have 10 hits in his first four World Series games.

Bauers pops out. On to the bottom of the 12th.

Caminero grounds to Ortiz at third. Ortiz bounces the throw and Bauers can’t dig it out. Shane Drohan comes on to face Liam Hicks. Hicks goes opposite field. Caminero goes first to third. No outs. DeLuca at the plate.

Now Milwaukee looks like the team in desperate need of an arm. DeLuca ropes one foul. DeLuca goes up top with 96. Next pitch. Up the middle. Drohan tries to catch it behind the back. No dice. 3-3.

Simpson up. He’s trying to bunt, but Drohan doesn’t give a pitch to bunt. When he finally goes high in the zone, Simpson smokes it to center. Bases loaded. Brand-new dad Brian Williamson steps up.

Even if the infielders aren’t in, there is no way Turang gets to the ball and makes a throw to get Mullins at home. Williamson’s high chopper bounds into the outfield. Mullins scores. 4-3 Rays.

What a game. Really, what a series! With the exception of Game 3. See you tomorrow in St. Petersburg.