Almost Perfect: While Overshadowed, Robert Gasser's Masterpiece Has Brewers On Precipice Of World Series Title

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If things go as expected and the Milwaukee Brewers go on to win their first World Series championship in their 58-year history, what Robert Gasser did Monday will get overlooked.

It won’t be hard to see why. While the left-hander, still technically a rookie, did what he did, the Brewers erupted for an eight-run fifth inning en route to a 10-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 3 of the 2026 World Series that gave Milwaukee a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Jackson Chourio and William Contreras led the offensive attack and will be in consideration for World Series MVP if the Brewers can get that final win. Brandon Woodruff returned to the mound for the first time since July 4.

But a good deal of the credit for getting through Game 3 and putting the Brewers one win away from that elusive World Series title belongs to Gasser.

The 27-year-old the Brewers acquired in the 2022 Josh Hader trade pitched the game of his life on the biggest stage.

He faced 18 batters. He got 18 outs. No, he wasn’t perfect. But damn near close to it. Gasser gave up a leadoff single to Yandy Diaz in the bottom of the first, but none after that in his six innings of work. Diaz got erased on a groundout by Chandler Simpson, who then was out caught stealing when he slid past the bag and second baseman Brice Turang kept the tag on him. A weird way to get three outs while facing three batters, but it all counts.

The only other batter to reach came when Victor Mesa Jr. led off the sixth by drawing an eight-pitch walk. The next hitter, Nick Fortes, hit into a double play. He was perfect in the four innings between those two runners, 12 up, 12 down.

That Fortes grounder produced the first out by a Brewer starter in the sixth inning this postseason. Robert Gasser, who started the season at Triple-A. Robert Gasser, who was optioned to Triple-A in May after just two starts in which he allowed seven runs in 8⅓. Not Jacob Misiorowski nor Logan Henderson, who started Games 1 and 2 of all three of the Brewers’ postseason series this year.

Those two have had the advantage of starting all three of their games in the comforts of American Family Field. Gasser? He stepped into the teeth of the hungry fandom at Petco Park for what was a crucial Game 4 of the NL Division Series. The Padres had won Game 3 by a 4-3 score, to this point the only loss on the Brewers’ ledger. A Padres win in Game 4 would have put the Brewers, MLB’s best team with a 103-win regular season, on the hot seat for a do-or-die Game 5 back in Milwaukee. Gasser allowed just one run in that game, a Fernando Tatis Jr. homer, while going four innings. The Brewers would win 3-1 to snap an MLB postseason-record 11-game road losing streak in a Gasser start.

Gasser’s next assignment was just as daunting. It was Game 3 of the NL Championship Series and he faced the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. But he was just a little bit better than he was against the Padres, going five shutout innings of a 6-2 win. He allowed three hits in each of those games.

Then came the World Series against the AL’s best team during the regular season. Gasser raised his game one more level.

One hit over six innings. Eight outs via grounders. Three strikeouts, just like his other two postseason starts. He was the first starting pitcher to face the minimum over six innings in the World Series since Curt Schilling of the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 7 in 2001. He was the first left-hander to do that since the legendary Sandy Koufax in 1965, who was perfect into the seventh inning of Game 5.

Robert Gasser, who missed most of the 2024 and 2025 seasons due to Tommy John surgery. He has endured through those travails and the payoff came Monday.

Sure, the pressure was off when the Brewers exploded in the top of the fifth inning for eight two-out runs, but he was focused and executed in the first four innings of a tight World Series game, then kept it up in his final two innings.

Ten, 20 years from now, maybe there will be more appreciation for Gasser's Game 3. The rout will put what Gasser did on the back burner, but what Bobby Gas did in Game 3 provided the fuel for the Brewers to do something that they haven’t done since joining MLB as the Seattle Pilots in 1969. He will have his own corner of Brewers lore.

With one more win, they will be world champions.

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Steve Drumwright grew up in Wisconsin and was forced out of youth baseball when he failed to make enough contact to play the sport he loves. He did make one memorable pitching appearance, summoned from right field in a blowout. Steve went on to a successful journalism career, beginning as a part-time high school sportswriter in small-town Wisconsin to becoming the No. 2 person in the newsroom in San Francisco. Steve enjoys telling the stories of other people and how sports is a terrific vehicle for telling those stories. He now lives in Southern California. Follow him on Bluesky.