MILWAUKEE — Tampa Bay’s meticulously constructed World Series rotation delivered on the mound Friday night, but the Rays’ bats went silent at the worst moments, producing a 3-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 1 at American Family Field.
Nick Martinez held the National League champion Brewers to two runs over five innings, keeping Tampa Bay within striking distance all night. The Rays collected seven hits, drew two walks and had the tying run at third base with two outs in the ninth inning — but went hitless in six at-bats with runners in scoring position.
“This is an extremely confident group,” manager Kevin Cash said. “They’re going to be fine. I think the frustration comes from, we were one swing of the bat away right at the end of potentially taking the lead. We came up a little bit short.”
The defeat stings in part because run prevention is precisely what the Rays do best. Tampa Bay entered Game 1 with a 79-12 record when allowing three runs or fewer — an MLB-best 72-11 in the regular season and 7-1 in the postseason. Holding Milwaukee to three runs was supposed to be a formula for a win.
Instead, Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski and the Milwaukee bullpen repeatedly escaped trouble. The Rays had runners on first and second with one out in the first inning but Junior Caminero lined into a double play. They had runners on second and third with one out in the fourth, scoring only one run on a groundout by Liam Hicks. In the fifth, with two outs and Yandy Díaz at the plate, Victor Mesa Jr. was thrown out trying to steal third to end the inning.
“Nick didn’t let the two runs early on factor into anything else once he went out for the second inning,” Cash said. “Certainly gave us every opportunity, kept it right there. Really impressed and proud of the way Nick went about it.”
Misiorowski worked five innings before giving way to a bullpen that was equally stifling. Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby combined to allow just one hit while striking out five over three innings. In the ninth, a double steal by Chandler Simpson and Jorge Mateo followed by a walk to Caminero loaded the bases with one out, and a replay review converted what appeared to be an inning-ending double play into a run-scoring groundout — but Jonny DeLuca struck out against Trevor Megill to end the game.
“We had traffic on the bases pretty much all night,” shortstop Taylor Walls said. “But [we] weren’t able to get that big hit, that timely hit, the double with a runner on first or a single with runners in scoring position. Hopefully we can turn that around, find some chances like that tomorrow and capitalize.”
“I feel like there were times where we had our chances to get things done, and we weren’t able to do that,” left fielder Chandler Simpson said. “We’ll just learn from it.”
Game 2 of the 2026 World Series is scheduled Saturday night at American Family Field, where Tampa Bay’s well-rested ace is set to take the mound.