Rays stun Brewers with 2-run rally in 12th inning and force World Series Game 5 with 4-3 win

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Jonny DeLuca and pinch-hitter Ben Williamson singled home runs in a stunning 12th-inning rally, and the Tampa Bay Rays staved off World Series elimination with a 4-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night that forced Game 5.

Cooper Pratt hit a tiebreaking home run off Ian Seymour in the top of the 12th for his fourth hit of the game as Milwaukee neared a sweep and its first World Series title.

But the Rays, also seeking their first championship, rallied in the bottom half after a throwing error by third baseman Joey Ortiz on Junior Caminero's leadoff grounder against reliever Antonio Senzatela.

Liam Hicks singled off rookie left-hander Shane Drohan, who relieved in his first appearance since Oct. 15, and DeLuca's single to center drove in pinch-runner Cedric Mullins to tie the score at 3.

Chandler Simpson's single loaded the bases and Milwaukee employed a five-man infield with the infield in.

Williamson, who had been 1 for 15 in the postseason, batted for Victor Mesa Jr. and hit a chopper over first baseman Jake Bauers into right field.

“That was totally what I told him to do,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said, drawing laughs.

“Pretty big swing. I’ve got to go back and recall everything that took place.”

Tampa Bay became the fourth team in World Series history to avoid elimination with an extra-inning comeback, according to OptaSTATS. The first three all went on to win the championship (1912 Red Sox, 1986 Mets, 2011 Cardinals).

“We've got a lot of fight in us. We’re never going to shy away," Simpson said. “We were going to keep fighting until the end — the last inning, the last out, the last play, the last pitch. We were going to keep fighting. That’s what we did tonight.”

Game 5 in the best-of-seven matchup is Wednesday night at Tropicana Field, with NL Cy Young Award favorite Jacob Misiorowski scheduled to start for the Brewers. Cash said he hadn't decided on a starter yet.

Tampa Bay became just the fifth of 26 teams that fell behind 3-0 in the World Series to win Game 4. The previous four lost Game 5.

Of 43 teams to trail 3-0 in any best-of-seven postseason matchup, the only one that rebounded to win was the Boston Red Sox against the New York Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series.

“It just shows the resiliency of this group,” Williamson said. “We continue to fight, and that’s been the motto this series and this full season, is just fight.”

Caminero was replaced by Mullins at third base and hobbled off the field with an ailing left foot. But the All-Star slugger said he’ll definitely play Wednesday night.

“He’ll play tomorrow on one leg. I’ll make sure of it,” Cash said.

Tampa Bay ended an eight-game winning streak by the Brewers, who were bidding to become only the second team to sweep a League Championship Series and the World Series.

“If you want to win a championship, you’ve got to survive some hard things," Milwaukee captain Christian Yelich said. "Like I said earlier, it’s supposed to be hard. It’s supposed to test you. We understand that.”

David Hamilton also homered for the Brewers. Jackson Chourio had a single and double, improving to 10 for 20 in the Series.

Pratt, a 22-year-old rookie whose go-ahead hit sparked the Brewers to a 5-4 win in Game 2, drove a slider into the left-field seats against Seymour. Pratt had tied the score at 1 with an RBI double in the second.

Milwaukee players bounded out of the dugout to greet Pratt, who debuted in June and became the first rookie to hit an extra-inning homer in the World Series.

“This kid responds to everything,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said.

Seymour also allowed Frelick’s tying homer in Game 2.

Milwaukee fans in the crowd of 40,514, many waving yellow towels and some wearing cheeseheads, brought a Badger State feel to Tropicana Field.

Tampa Bay returned to its white home jerseys, a day after playing in Devil Rays throwbacks.

Simpson hit an RBI double off starter Dustin May in the second, but Milwaukee tied the score in the fourth against Griffin Jax when Frelick hit a two-out single and came around on Pratt's double.

Caminero singled leading off the bottom half to chase May and advanced on a groundout. DeLuca hit a hard grounder to Hamilton and Caminero twisted toward the grass to avoid the third baseman’s tag, then came home when Hamilton bounced his throw past Bauers for an error.

Hamilton, Milwaukee’s No. 9 hitter, drove an 0-2 fastball at the letters from Jax into the right-field seats for his second home run of the postseason — half his regular-season total and just his second since June 6.

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

The Tampa Bay Rays celebrate their win after the 12th inning of Game 4 of baseball's World Series, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Tampa Bay Rays' Ben Williamson celebrates the game winning hit during the 12th inning of Game 4 of baseball's World Series, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Tampa Bay Rays' Ben Williamson celebrates the game winning hit during the 12th inning of Game 4 of baseball's World Series, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Tampa Bay Rays second baseman Ben Williamson connects for a game-winning RBI single off Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Shane Drohan during the 12th inning of Game 4 of baseball's World Series, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Jorge Mateo (9) and right fielder Victor Mesa Jr. (25) celebrate with Tampa Bay Rays second baseman Ben Williamson after his walk-off RBI single during the 12th inning of Game 4 of baseball's World Series, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays' Chandler Simpson celebrates during the 12th inning of Game 4 of baseball's World Series, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israelis appear to have handed a rebuke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in national elections, but what’s next is uncertain as exit polls suggest there's no clear winner and no obvious path to a governing majority.

The election was widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu, the country’s longest-serving prime minister, who gave a defiant speech to his supporters just after 3 a.m. on Wednesday in Jerusalem.

His party, Likud, appears to have gotten the most votes. But the exit polls by major Israeli TV stations indicate that support for his religious-national coalition dropped significantly.

The exit polls suggested his opponents — led by Netanyahu’s chief rival, Gadi Eisenkot, who also rallied exuberant supporters in Tel Aviv early on Wednesday — could secure a solid majority in the next parliament. But whether those disparate parties, which include Arab-led parties, can form a government is uncertain. It would likely take weeks of haggling or possibly new elections.

Here are some key points to know on Wednesday morning, hours after the polls closed in Israel.

In Israel, voters choose not individuals but parties. Since no party has ever captured a parliamentary majority on its own, party leaders must agree to come together in a governing coalition.

Exit polls indicate that Netanyahu's bloc of supporters won about 51 seats in parliament, approximately the same as the bloc led by Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff. That would leave each side well below the 61 seats needed to form a government with a parliamentary majority.

The exit polls suggested that Arab-led parties captured the remaining 19 seats.

With just under a third of the ballots counted early on Wednesday morning, Israel’s Central Elections Committee reported 22.02% of the vote went to Likud, the party led by Netanyahu, and 15.46% to Eisenkot's Yashar party. The count does not indicate how many seats each party will win in the parliament.

Final official results aren't expected until later this week and they may vary from the exit polls, which, like all surveys, are subject to potential error.

If the Arab parties do as well as the exit polls suggest, they could play a decisive role in selecting Israel's next prime minister.

In his election night speech, Netanyahu repeated his refusal to create a government relying on Arab parties. Eisenkot has signaled he is ready to work with them under certain conditions, but that could risk alienating some of his partners.

Israelis are largely opposed to a Palestinian state. No major candidate advocated a return to the long-moribund peace process.

Even Mansour Abbas, a Palestinian Arab politician who leads Ra’am, the first Arab-led party to join a governing coalition in 2021, focused his campaign on concerns about crime in Arab communities.

As exit polls were shown on a screen at an Abbas election night event in Sakhnin, an Arab city in northern Israel, supporters of the small Arab-led party Ra’am erupted in celebration.

This election was held against the background of the enduring trauma of the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, when militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 others, and the ensuing wars in Gaza and beyond.

The deadliest day in Israel’s history featured prominently in the campaigns. Israelis have focused on the security failures surrounding Oct. 7 and the enormous burden on their society, rather than on the humanitarian situation in war-devastated Gaza.

Netanyahu has rejected an investigation into Oct. 7 and blamed the army for the failures that day. His supporters say he led the country back from that difficult day and scored important achievements in wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.

Netanyahu’s opponents said he should be held accountable for the security failures that occurred on his watch and have demanded a commission of inquiry.

The country has also been deeply divided by exemptions from military service granted to ultra-Orthodox males. These exemptions are especially contentious after three years of wars.

Netanyahu’s governing coalitions have long relied on ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties that have demanded these exemptions remain in place.

Eisenkot — who lost his son and two nephews to combat in Gaza — has vowed to end the de facto exemptions. He repeated that promise speaking to supporters on Wednesday morning.

The exit polls, which also indicated a drop in support for ultra-Orthodox parties, signaled voter unhappiness over these exemptions.

The final update from Israel’s Central Elections Committee put voter turnout at 77.7% of eligible voters as polls closed Tuesday night.

That’s the highest turnout since 1999, and just over seven percentage points higher than in the previous election in 2022, reflecting the high stakes of the election.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greets his supporters at Likud party headquarters in Jerusalem after the release of the first exit poll results in Israel's general election, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar ("Straight") party, waves an Israeli flag onstage following the release of the first exit poll results in Israel's general election in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Supporters of Israeli lawmaker Mansour Abbas's Raam party applaud and wave party flags after the release of the first exit poll results in Israel's general election, in Sakhnin, Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Supporters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu react to the release of the first exit poll results in Israel's general election in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar ("Straight") party, waves to supporters after the release of the first exit poll results in Israel's general election in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, is partially obscured by Israeli flags as he greets supporters after the release of the first exit poll results in Israel's general election in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

People embrace and wave flags amid falling confetti as they celebrate early exit poll results for Israel's general election in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Supporters of Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar ("Straight") party, react after the release of the first exit poll results in Israel's general election in Tel Aviv, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Former Israeli hostage Gadi Moses waits to cast his ballot during Israel's general election at a polling station in Kibbutz Nir Oz, southern Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A man casts his ballot at a polling station during Israel's general election in Haifa, Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Voters arrive at a school used as a polling station during Israel's general election in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A pedestrian passes a campaign billboard featuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and his main rival, opposition candidate Gadi Eisenkot, with a message in Hebrew that reads "The race is tight," Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A woman walks past a Likud Party campaign billboard featuring U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with a Hebrew message reading, "We have one opportunity to win," in Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)