The Limbo Plays

It started to feel familiar in the 11th inning. A first baseman drew a walk. A pinch-runner took his place, then stole second. The Rays, down 3-0 and staring down the end, got a whiff of what could be.

World Series Game 4 chanted the words itself, really. Broadcaster Joe Davis just identified the apparition that was summoned: Dave Roberts, the 2004 Red Sox, David Ortiz, the only comeback from down 3-0 in baseball history. This runner — Jorge Mateo, in for Yandy Diaz — didn’t end up scoring. But like the first chapter of that Red Sox comeback, this game ended in a 12th-inning walk-off that preserved the seeds of Rays hope and Brewers doubt.

The Game 4 moments that were and weren’t to be are suspended in a reality between Good and Bad, History and Forgotten, Something and Nothing.

The vast majority end up in the bin of Nothing, tossed out with the loser’s championship T-shirts. As detailed by Sarah Langs, the Rays are just the 11th team out of 44 in MLB postseason history to even force a Game 5 after going down 3-0. Only four of those came in the World Series, and none have successfully extended it to a Game 6. The 2024 Yankees avoided a sweep, with Anthony Volpe hitting a pivotal homer in Game 4, only to succumb to the Dodgers in Game 5. Prior to that, the last World Series team down 3-0 to even win Game 4 was in 1970.

For now, the tension is in our blindness. We don’t if the plays that riveted us late last night and early this morning are Big Papis or little Volpes. Rays fans have to hold onto them, hoping they last. Brewers fans have to live with them, willing them to go away.

While they mean the most and the least to us, let’s rank the plays from World Series Game 4 that could turn the most pungent with time.

8. Rays let a Jake Bauers foul pop-up drop, but strike him out — top of the 10th inning

It feels like the Brewers have been feasting off their opponents’ mistakes, growing more powerful with each slip-up. When Liam Hicks and Junior Caminero stumbled into a classic blooper reel drop, it gave the Brewers an extra opportunity with a full count and two outs in the 10th. Imminent doom, a Bauers homer, felt like the only outcome that could follow. But it didn’t.

This was one of four times after reaching the 2-2 deadlock that the Brewers left a man on base, and one of two times Bauers made the third out.

7. Chandler Simpson catches Garrett Mitchell’s fly ball at the wall — top 9th

Simpson’s grab was visually pleasing, but ultimately was never really precarious for the Rays despite the elevated tenor of the broadcast. Still, if Simpson’s outfield chops had been at his dreadful 2025 levels, the runner taking off from first might very well have scored.

6. Junior Caminero dodges David Hamilton’s tag, scores on his errant throw — bottom 4th

The earliest entrant into limbo gave the Rays a 2-1 lead. Jonny DeLuca’s grounder and Caminero’s, uh, unconventional baserunning decision put Brewers third baseman David Hamilton in bind set to fast forward. Surprised to have the opportunity for a tag play, he went after Caminero but missed, then botched the throw to first in his haste to secure an out.

Hamilton rectified the score with a homer the following inning, limiting the mistake’s memory potential.

5. Jonny DeLuca singles in the tying run off Shane Drohan — bottom 12th

Up in the count 1-2 against the least imposing hitter he had faced thus far, Brewers rookie pitcher Shane Drohan needed this. He made an OK pitch — cutter, 90 mph, bending to the outside corner. It just wasn’t sharp enough. DeLuca poked at it and made solid contact up the middle, at which point the game was tied, there were still no outs and the un-double-uppable Simpson coming to the plate. Drohan’s surprise cameo felt cooked.

4. Brewers manager Pat Murphy pulls Aaron Ashby — bottom 11th