Brewers' World Series domination of Rays should have Guardians fans saying ‘what if’ 

While watching the World Series can be a bittersweet experience for fans of the 28 teams that didn’t make it to the Fall Classic, it tends to be a bit tougher for fans of teams that were eliminated in the postseason.

That theme is arguably even more intense for Guardians fans this season given how close the Guardians came to making it while losing to a team filled with players who started in Cleveland. 

But, by that logic, this year’s World Series results should make everyone in Cleveland feel a little better given the Rays are getting absolutely toasted  by the Brewers in the World Series. Not so fast my friend. 

Although it may be nice to watch Taylor Walls finally misplay a ball up the middle and Cam Booser regress to the mean, it comes with the nagging feeling of knowing the Guardians would at least do better than this against the Brewers. 

The Guardians could've done a better job against the Brewers than the Rays are doing

It may not seem like it, but the Brewers are a titan. If they win tonight, they’ll finish off the season 8-0 with sweeps over the Dodgers in the NLCS and the Rays in the World Series. No one knows how long this winter is going to last due to the impending lockout, but it’s all but guaranteed that the Brewers are going to do so with two big pelts on their wall. 

They made their latest statement on Monday in Game 3 in an eight-run fifth inning highlighted by seven consecutive two-out hits. The start of that barrage came against Rays starter Freddy Peralta, who won ALCS MVP after he finished the series with a 0.75 ERA in 12 innings. Now the lasting image from the Rays season could be him getting pulled as Tampa’s season fell off a cliff. 

And it’s not like the Brewers are beating the Rays in a wildly different way than the Guardians played. Sal Frelick’s homer in Game 2 stands out as Milwaukee’s only homer of the series, and no player has recorded more than three RBI. 

The biggest reason they’ve been able to get past the Rays (Monday’s game notwithstanding) is a dominant pitching performance led by a stable of starters and relief ace Aaron Ashby. It’s the same kind of formula the Guardians were using. 

The Brewers fifth inning outburst on Monday started on a Brice Turang hit up the middle that, while difficult, glanced off Walls’ glove before skittering into center field. The Guardians may not hit a ball in the same way as Turang, but it seemed like Walls scooped up everything that was hit to him. 

The Guardians may not have had enough firepower to beat the Brewers in the World Series, but it’s fair to assume they would have put up more of a fight than this. 

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