The Rays Are Following an Eerily Similar Blueprint to the 2004 Red Sox

Twelve hours ago, this series was over. The Rays had fought valiantly for the third time in four games, but the Brewers took a lead in the 12th inning on a Cooper Pratt home run and fans in Milwaukee were already lined up outside American Family Field to get their World Series champions merch.

But nobody told the Rays they were supposed to be dead already.

All five Tampa Bay hitters reached base in the bottom of the 12th, culminating in a Ben Williamson walk-off single. And now. we've gone from a sweep to the potential re-telling of one of the greatest stories in baseball history.

The 2004 Red Sox went down 3-0 to the Yankees in the ALCS with three- and two-run losses in Games 1 and 2, followed by a 19-8 drubbing in Game 3 before beginning their unprecedented comeback with a walk-off win in the 12th inning of Game 4. The Rays lost each of the first two games of this World Series by a run before losing 10-1 in Game 3 and then walking off the Brewers in the 12th inning. No team has come back from down 3-0 in a series before or since the '04 Red Sox, but the parallels we're seeing in this World Series are fascinating.

And if Tampa Bay can find a way to get past Jacob Misiorowski tonight, then everything changes. One flight to Milwaukee is filled with guys on cloud nine while the other is suddenly tense and now you're just one game away from a winner-take-all.

Let's get this thing back to Milwaukee and just see what happens.