​ST. PETERSBURG, FL. – If not for a Jonathan Aranda ball in the sixth inning, the exit-velocity leaderboard in Game 4 of the World Series would simply read like a round of Milwaukee Brewers batting practice.Twelve of the 13 hardest-hit balls in Tampa Bay’s 4-3 extra-inning win were authored by Brewers. They included three balls in play by Jackson Chourio, another home run by David Hamilton and a single by Sal Frelick. They just didn’t find the artificial grass at Tropicana Field on Oct. 27.Incredibly, that list of 12 well-struck baseballs, all in excess of 102 miles per hour, featured nine outs. Including the playoffs, that’s tied for the third-most outs registered in a game at 100 mph or less this year, trailing only a particularly bad day from the Atlanta Braves (11 outs on Sept. 24) and, sure enough, the Brewers, who hit into 10 such outs on Aug. 15 against the Dodgers.The Brewers won that game anyway. This one goes down, for now, as one of the biggest heartbreakers in franchise history. But not the biggest, not yet, especially with a sign that the Brewers hit into their fair share of bad luck and still present as the better team in the series.”I don’t think we had poor at-bats at the end,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “I think we didn’t punch out too much (11 strikeouts in 12 innings), but we had a checked swing – a couple checked swings strikeouts. … We’ve played really good baseball. We lost tonight to a really good ball club who executed when they had to.”The Brewers on Tuesday night were the same Brewers team that won 10 of their first 11 playoff games in 2026 and built a 3-0 lead in this World Series, with a cushion that remains healthy once Game 5 gets under way later Wednesday, Oct. 28 in St. Petersburg.”We hit a lot of balls hard, put together quality at-bats … yeah, it sucks,” said Brewers outfielder Garrett Mitchell. “You want to win those games. But hats off to them for getting it done, putting together quality at-bats at the end, too.”The Rays indeed put together the at-bats and found the right spots, reaching on an error and collecting four straight singles to rally from a 3-2 deficit in the bottom of the 12th. Ben Williamson’s walk-off winner kept the Rays’ season alive at least another 24 hours.”Game’s over. On to tomorrow. It’s pretty much that simple,” Mitchell said. “As simple as we talk about winning those games. We didn’t win tonight, and you’ve just got to flush it and be prepared tomorrow.”Sure, you can consider it coach-speak after a team came within three outs of the first World Series title in franchise history. But the Rays truly snuck by on a night when the Brewers were the stronger offensive unit, at least in terms of quality of contact.Mitchell’s long fly ball in the ninth was not even among the hardest hits, caught by a leaping Chandler Simpson at the wall to prevent what would have been a go-ahead (and eventual game-winning) double. That left the bat and merely 98.9mph and would have been a homer in s