ST. PETERSBURG — Junior Caminero had just made a great play to start the inning, he was ready when William Contreras came to the play. He knew the play he wanted to make.
"I already had in mind going to second base," the Tampa Bay Rays third baseman said through an interpreter. "Once I got the ground ball, I was going to second base all the way."
He didn't get the out. The Milwaukee Brewers scored eight runs before the Rays recorded another out. All eight runs came with two outs in the fifth inning and turned a two-run deficit into a 10-run hole in Game 3 of the World Series at Tropicana Field.
Milwaukee became the first team to score eight two-out runs in a World Series inning, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Brewers lead the series
3-0 and can win the first championship in franchise history Tuesday night in the same building.
With runners on first and second, Contreras hit a hard ground ball deep into the hole at third. Caminero said he knew Contreras' speed going to first. He threw to second anyway. Christian Yelich was called out, but the Brewers challenged.
Then the replay came back. Yelich's foot reached the bag a beat before Ben Williamson caught the throw.
Contreras, a catcher, was still running to first.
"He might have had a play at Contreras getting down the first base line. Don't fault Cammy at all," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "That ball is a hard hit ground ball, topspin, took him almost back to the grass or the turf. Understood why he thought the best avenue was to go to second. But it was a good job by, I think, Yelich busting it to second base and getting there safe.
"It's easy to go back and look at. I've got the advantage of an iPad. Cammy doesn't have that. So he's doing everything he can to make the play right then and the best decision at that moment."
Caminero had opened the inning by leaping to snare David Hamilton's line drive. Now the bases were loaded and Cash had to pull Freddy Peralta for left-hander Cam Booser.
Brice Turang fought off a two-strike pitch and bounced a two-run single off shortstop Taylor Walls's glove up the middle.
"Wallsy always makes a play," Cash said, "and then it just kind of unraveled from there."
Garrett Mitchell singled in another run. Then Cooper Pratt hit a ground ball that found Caminero again. It caromed off him and rolled into left field for a two-run double.
Sal Frelick doubled. Hamilton singled. Jackson Chourio doubled. Booser faced four batters and didn't record an out. By the time Jake Bauers flied out to end it, the Brewers had seven two-out hits and eight two-out runs in one inning, which no team had ever done in a World Series.
"It's definitely deflating," Cash said. "How would it not be?"
"After the inning, it was a matter of 'All right, let's get the ball rolling and try to respond ourselves," Caminero said. "Things didn't work out our way."
In the sixth, Contreras grounded to Caminero again. This time the throw got away, an error that sent Contreras to second. It was Caminero's second error of the postseason.
Defense was supposed to be where Tampa Bay won.
The Rays saved 86 runs with their defense this season, second in the majors behind the Cubs, according to Sports Info Solutions. They held hitters to a .379 batting average on balls in play on hard contact, the best mark of the Statcast era. Shortstop Taylor Walls led all shortstops in Runs Saved.
Tampa Bay's .984 fielding percentage, however, ranked 19th in the majors, according to Baseball-Reference. Milwaukee's .987 ranked seventh. Caminero, who hit 42 home runs, also made 20 errors at third base.
The misplays have come in every game of this series. In Game 2, Jonathan Aranda's error cost a run, and Chandler Simpson's sliding drop in left extended an inning as Milwaukee erased a 4-0 deficit. Cameras caught Caminero erupting in the dugout afterward.
Caminero doesn't see it as the Rays beating themselves though.
"I don't even think it's been a matter of necessarily us playing bad," Caminero said. "The Brewers have been playing exceptionally well."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How disaster inning just about killed Tampa Bay Rays' World Series hopes
