After Tampa Bay’s 5-4 Game 2 loss, third baseman Junior Caminero was captured shouting at teammates in the dugout, urging them to stop the miscues and get outs. Caminero said the club must flip the page and treat Monday’s Game 3 at Tropicana Field as a fresh start with the Rays trailing 2-0 in the World Series. It was the voice of a player who understands that a series can be lost in the hours after a defeat as easily as during it, because a team that carries Game 2 into Game 3 will play Game 3 with Game 2’s mistakes still in its hands.
How Game 2 was lost
Tampa Bay led 4-0 after the first inning on Saturday, with Liam Hicks hitting a two run homer to spark the early outburst, and Chandler Simpson and Junior Caminero contributing to the strong start against Brewers pitcher Logan Henderson. Then Milwaukee came back. Sal Frelick tied the game with a sixth inning homer, his first in three months, and Cooper Pratt delivered a go ahead RBI single in the seventh. Aaron Ashby struck out Yandy Diaz to end it as 43,245 fans watched. Reports of the defeat pointed to defensive miscues and missed offensive opportunities, and to manager Kevin Cash’s pitching decisions drawing scrutiny amid the struggles. The Rays did not lose Game 2 because they were outclassed for nine innings. They lost it because they stopped doing, for five innings, the things that had built the lead in the first.
Why Game 3 is a reset, not a formality
Milwaukee now carries a 2-0 advantage into Game 3, and neither the Brewers nor the Rays has won a World Series, so the matchup will produce a first time champion. The series is also expected to be baseball’s first played entirely indoors, with the first two games in Milwaukee and the rest in St. Petersburg’s domed ballpark. For Tampa Bay, the reset Caminero demanded has a practical shape: clean defence, productive at bats with runners on, and a starter who gives the bullpen a night off. For Milwaukee, the danger is the opposite, believing a series is won because it is led. Caminero’s message, delivered in the dugout while the loss was still fresh, was aimed at both dugouts at once, even if only one of them heard it.
