Tampa Bay Rays at Milwaukee Brewers

MILWAUKEE – They call it the Good Land, full of friendly strangers and easygoing souls. But boy, it will turn on you in a hurry if you come here trying to beat their Brewers. The National League champs didn’t so much overpower or overwhelm the Tampa Bay Rays in these first two games of the World Series at American Family Field. The Brewers just tormented their visitors with that rare double-ending in the opener, then crafted a compelling, soul-stomping comeback in a 5-4 win in Game 2 on Saturday night. After shaking off a 4-0 deficit for the second time in as many postseason rounds with the help of a game-tying homer from Sal Frelick in the sixth and a go-ahead, opposite-field RBI single from rookie Cooper Pratt in the seventh, the Brew Crew has a commanding 2-0 lead in this best-of-seven. It’s an edge that, in 55 identical advantages in previous Fall Classics, teams have converted into a crown 80.7% of the time. Math, momentum and, in these two electric evenings under the hood of the Brewers’ cavernous confines, volume have all been on the side of the Brewers so far. The Series will shift to St. Petersburg, where far fewer Brewer backers reside. But so far this matchup has been marked by the Brewers playing with clear confidence and the Rays making far too many mistakes. Strange, too, because the Rays came into Game 2 with their ace and their best bullpen arms all rested and ready. Then they came out swinging with a four-spot in the first, quickly reminding us all that nothing is to be assumed in a Series of similarly styled squads. Again, though, the Good Land can become, as Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy’s hero Bruce Springsteen puts it, the “Badlands” for anyone trying to get in the way of this team’s search for a franchise-first title.