The game you cannot play in

One · What happened

Four hours and twenty minutes in St. Petersburg

The Brewers beat the Rays three to two on Friday night in the first game of the 2026 World Series. They won again on Saturday, five to four. Monday at Tropicana Field was ten to one, and CBS Sports counted eight runs in the fifth inning, every one of them with two outs. Pat Murphy, the Brewers’ manager, told CBS Sports, “It looks like we’re in the driver’s seat, but it’s baseball.” Fox13 reported that Milwaukee won a franchise-record one hundred and three games in the regular season, against ninety-eight for the Rays. Neither club has won a World Series.

Yahoo Sports reported that Cooper Pratt, a Brewers rookie, hit a home run in the top of the twelfth on Tuesday night. The home run came off the Rays’ Ian Seymour and put Milwaukee ahead three to two. Joey Ortiz, the Brewers’ third baseman, then made an error on a ground ball from Junior Caminero, and Caminero reached base. A ground ball from Jonny DeLuca evened the score. Ben Williamson, batting for the Rays as a pinch-hitter, chopped a single over first baseman Jake Bauers to score the winning run. MLB.com called it the seventeenth walk-off win by a team facing elimination in World Series history.

MLB.com counted the Rays as the fifth team in World Series history to force a Game Five after trailing three games to none, and none of the four before them forced a Game Six. Yahoo Sports kept another list, the earlier teams to survive elimination with an extra-inning comeback. The 1912 Red Sox, the Mets of 1986 and the Cardinals of 2011 all went on to win the Series. Rays manager Kevin Cash said Caminero, who left Tuesday’s game with an ailing left foot, would play in Game Five “on one leg.” Jacob Misiorowski is scheduled to start for Milwaukee.

Two · What it is doing

The name a loss goes looking for

“I’ve got to make that play,” Joey Ortiz said after Game Four of his error in the twelfth inning. The error put Caminero on base for the Rays. A fan of either club can turn Ortiz’s sentence into a verdict on him before the postgame show ends. A reader whose side lost has a name to hang the loss on. The other side’s reader has the same name to laugh at, from a couch, with no chance of ever meeting the man.

The two lists in Tuesday’s coverage were both accurate. Each fits the stomach of the man holding it. A Rays fan can reach for the three teams that survived elimination that way and won the title. A Brewers fan can reach for the four teams that forced a fifth game and never forced a sixth. Neither list can see the inning that has not been played. A reader who picks the one that matches his hope will feel it as knowledge through the pregame show.

A father who has taken his son to Tropicana Field since the boy was five has something good to lose tonight. A man in Milwaukee who has waited his whole life for a first title has something good to win. Neither of them does wrong by caring about a team. The trouble starts when a game is asked to settle what only God can settle, such as whether a hard autumn has finally turned. Yahoo Sports gave the end of Tuesday’s game as twenty-eight minutes past midnight, which left a fan who stayed to the last out with four hours and twenty minutes of held breath behind him. A short night. The next morning he may sneer at the neighbor in the other club’s cap. Baseball is a poor thing to hang that on.

Three · Where the ground is

The horse and the king in Psalm 33

“The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue” (Psalm 33:16–17). The psalm speaks of kings with armies and of the horses that a nation in that age counted on to carry its soldiers into battle. A ball game is a far smaller thing than a war. The psalm is about deliverance in war and says nothing of baseball. Two verses on, the psalm names where the LORD’s eye rests, “on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love” (Psalm 33:18).

The wreath that does not last

Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, a city that lay beside the grounds of the Isthmian Games, and he drew on the footrace. “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable” (1 Corinthians 9:25). Paul lets the Corinthians keep their games and their wreaths. The wreath of a champion, he says, wears out, and the one he names as imperishable comes through Christ, who stood in the sinner’s place at the cross and walked out of the tomb.

Hope that is put off

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12). The proverb describes what a person feels when the thing he wants keeps being postponed, and a fan with a series stretched across a week knows the feeling in the stomach. Nothing in the saying promises that tonight’s wish will be granted. Psalm 33 points to the hope that does not run out when a game does.

The peace that stands guard

Paul’s letter to the Philippians came from prison, with his case in other men’s hands. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6–7). The verse invites any fan to bring the want to God by name. No particular result is promised anywhere in the verse.

Four · Today

Five things, and none of them are “stay informed”

Four of these belong before the first pitch tonight. The fifth belongs to Saturday.

1. 01

   Set the hour the television goes off.

   First pitch tonight is at eight o’clock Eastern. Pick an hour to switch the set off, eleven if you work in the morning, and tell the person in your house what the hour is. Keep to it when the score is close. Tuesday’s game ran past midnight, a long night for a body that has work in the morning and a household to get moving. The heading of Psalm 3 says David wrote it while he fled from his son Absalom. One line reads, “I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustains me” (Psalm 3:5).

2. 02

   Tell God what you want tonight to do for you.

   Before the first pitch, open Philippians 4:6–7 and tell God what you hope the result will give you, a title or a night when something finally goes right. Ask him for the peace of verse 7 when the last out comes. Christ keeps those who are his through every inning of a life, and no box score reaches into that keeping.

3. 03

   Pray for Joey Ortiz by name.

   Write his name on a card and pray for him tonight, whichever club you follow. A man who made an error in a World Series game is being talked about by people who have never met him. Ask God to give him rest after the game. Pray the same for whoever makes the next mistake in a series that is not over.

4. 04

   Call the friend who roots for the other side.

   Phone him before the first pitch and wish him a good game. Ask how his week has gone, then hear him out before you bring up the series or your team’s chances. A win tonight tempts a man to send the gloating text, and a loss tempts him to sulk and send nothing. Send him your congratulations in either case, and mean them.

5. 05

   Spend an hour with a church member who is not watching.

   Ring your pastor and ask which member of the congregation cannot get out of the house. Plan to go on Saturday with a meal and stay to eat it with that member. The writer of Hebrews said, “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God” (Hebrews 13:16).