World Series Game 2, Rays (Rasmusssen) vs Brewers (Henderson): 10/24/26, 7:00pm

[Brock Beauchamp]

Last night's game wasn't pretty, but it was a win, and that's all that matters in late October. The Brewers face a very different challenge tonight in Drew Rassmussen. What do you think the Crew will get out of Henderson against this Rays lineup?

[Frisbee Slider]

Henderson for four. Hall for two. Then 7-8-9.

[Frisbee Slider]

Might as well throw Romero today., too.

[Turning2]

My gut tells me they will struggle mightily against Rasmussen, and probably end up 1-1. And then I remind myself they took down Skubal, Yamamoto, Snell, Glasnow etc. The lack of offense is unnerving, but they do seem to find a way more often than not this post season. Won't be a cakewalk, we're probably not going to be treated to a 7-2 win in this entire series, but they can beat Ras. Taking 2-0 down to the Trop would be huge

 

[MrTPlush]

I don’t hate our chances today, I’d love to win it because it is a home game. I don’t really want to go to the Trop wanting 2/3 wins there.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

I think we might well be calling this the Logan Henderson game when all is said and done. I like his stuff vs. the Rays for some reason. He can pitch to contact and has elite BABIP ability. He wants you to put it in play. The Rays want to put it in play. It sure could backfire, and I know they'll test his fielding.

But I think he might give us the kind of postseason ace outing we've been wanting and save an inning or two for the top-tier bullpen. 

Could I also see the Rays jumping all over him? You bet. But with all the talk about Rasmussen, I think the world is underestimating Logan.

[cragi]

If you’re the brewers, you’re happy to escape 1-0, but also somewhat uneasy that it took all of your best pitchers to get there. Every home opener of their run has started with a 1-run victory

if you’re cash and the rays, you’re also feeling really good. You knew the brewers are really good and hot and you have to find a way to steal a road win, so you put all the chips on game #2 before the series started.

- you got the Cy Young pitcher out with 5 innings.

- you’ve taxed the top 3 arms in the pen

- You saved your ace and your closer for game #2

- You made some baserunning mistakes that can be cleaned up

- despite that, game went to the wire and you almost score the upset

Game 2 is pivotal. I think the rays haven’t seen the best yet from the brewers and they will settle in tonight.

if the rays plan pays off with an upset, momentum shifts to Tampa and they also pickup more fan support. But if they lose, their game 1 gamble fails and they come home to a stadium packed with brewer fans. That could break them.

[NeedMoreFans]

People really seemed to pump up the whole "Cash didn't want Rasmussen to go up against Miz" narrative too much.  Henderson would be the #1 starter on most MLB teams, he just so happens to pitch on the same team as the likely Cy Young winner.  Maybe the true narrative was it gets Peralta up against Gasser, who has also been pitching amazing. 

The NLCS has given me a sense of calm about the World Series, and I have no fear going up against Rasmussen or Peralta.  All of the pressure was on them last night- first WS game in 44 years at home after 8 days off?  That's a recipe for disaster.  There were some hiccups, but I'd expect them to be a bit more relaxed and play better today. 

[cragi]

On Miz performance, call it fatigue or whatever, but we are seeing the warnings play out regarding our young starters taking on a bigger workload.

Miz and Harrison should be dominating based on the first 2/3 of the season, but they aren’t the same. A subpar miz is still amazing, but his command looks more like 2025 level and he is forced to throw down the middle whereas he was just painting the first half. His lack of offspeed pitch he can land allows batters to time it up better. He’s just not the same right now and the team is winning despite that.

[cragi]

One little mind game you see from Contreras is the art of the “almost-tap”. I’m grabbing for my gun in case I need to use it here.

The ump hasn’t made his call yet and that delay gives Contreras the opportunity to let the ump know he thinks it’s a strike and that he’s maybe about to make the ump look stupid if he calls it wrong. Better call a strike.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

For all the talk of Mis, let's also not forget Rasmussen is at 193 innings right now. He threw 150 in 2025, and we know his injury history.

He's been great. He's tough. He's shown no signs of being fatigued this postseason. But, if the Rays are going to win, he's probably going to have to push 205 innings, and that's a lot. 

[owbc]

13 minutes ago, cragi said:

On Miz performance, call it fatigue or whatever, but we are seeing the warnings play out regarding our young starters taking on a bigger workload.

Miz and Harrison should be dominating based on the first 2/3 of the season, but they aren’t the same. A subpar miz is still amazing, but his command looks more like 2025 level and he is forced to throw down the middle whereas he was just painting the first half. His lack of offspeed pitch he can land allows batters to time it up better. He’s just not the same right now and the team is winning despite that.

In the old days Miz would have gone 7+ IP 115 pitches last night and gutted it out. He didn’t and was still the youngest pitcher to win a World Series game since 1997. 
 

 

[homer]

Miz may not have the swing-and-miss stuff he did during the season but he is still very, very, very good. It's like going from the best starting pitcher in baseball to 8th best. 

[willie key]

So apparently the rays manager played a blinder last night not showing us any of their  pitchers.     According to their fans and analysts.    Must be nice to be so talented that they can just Sunday lineup a World Series game.    Good for them 

[NeedMoreFans]

12 minutes ago, willie key said:

So apparently the rays manager played a blinder last night not showing us any of their  pitchers.     According to their fans and analysts.    Must be nice to be so talented that they can just Sunday lineup a World Series game.    Good for them 

And it was great to get into our bullpen in the 6th and use our best arms. Clearly people have not watched the Brewers all season because that's been their formula. 

[82brewcrew82]

14 minutes ago, willie key said:

So apparently the rays manager played a blinder last night not showing us any of their  pitchers.     According to their fans and analysts.    Must be nice to be so talented that they can just Sunday lineup a World Series game.    Good for them 

So they played a blinder to put themselves in a position where, historically, the losing team loses the series 65% of the time?

[82brewcrew82]

1 minute ago, NeedMoreFans said:

And it was great to get into our bullpen in the 6th and use our best arms. Clearly people have not watched the Brewers all season because that's been their formula. 

Dodgers said the same thing after game one of the NLCS.

[Bernies Sponsor]

11 minutes ago, 82brewcrew82 said:

So they played a blinder to put themselves in a position where, historically, the losing team loses the series 65% of the time?

Results oriented thinking is one way to look at it, but looking at it from the process perspective instead, the Rays were damn close to stealing game 1. They must be feeling very confident about their chances to win the series based on how each team played and the resources each used to get to the result.

[82brewcrew82]

1 minute ago, Bernies Sponsor said:

Results oriented thinking is one way to look at it, but looking at it from the process perspective instead, the Rays were damn close to stealing game 1. They must be feeling very confident about their chances to win the series based on how each team played and the resources each used to get to the result.

They can have all the feels they want.  I'm sure the Dodgers had the same feels after a close game 1.  The games still have to be played and the Brewers have beat better teams and better pitchers routinley this post season.  All of a sudden we are scared because game one was tight?  Why is it an automatic thing that Rasmussen is going to dominate?

[Bernies Sponsor]

Just now, 82brewcrew82 said:

They can have all the feels they want.  I'm sure the Dodgers had the same feels after a close game 1.  The games still have to be played and the Brewers have beat better teams and better pitchers routinley this post season.  All of a sudden we are scared because game one was tight?  Why is it an automatic thing that Rasmussen is going to dominate?

I’m not saying it’s automatic, I’m trying to explain why I think the Rays/their fans/analysts feel good about the decision to save Rasmussen for game 2