"No excuse about it" - Joey Ortiz gets brutally honest after costly error in Brewers' Game 4 World Series defeat

Milwaukee Brewers third baseman Joey Ortiz had been in the game for three innings when the ground ball found him with the team three outs from the first World Series title in franchise history. Junior Caminero’s bouncer off a broken bat took Ortiz toward the line, and his throw to first bounced in the dirt short of Jake Bauers.

Caminero reached, the Tampa Bay Rays scored twice in the bottom of the 12th without making an out, and a 3-2 Milwaukee lead became a 4-3 loss that cut the series to 3-1 and forced a Game 5 on Wednesday. Joey Ortiz had a convenient explanation within reach.

He entered in the ninth after Andrew Vaughn pinch-hit for David Hamilton, having been used sparingly this October. He refused it. Asked about the encouraging words he had received from teammates, Joey Ortiz said:

“Um, yeah, just encouraging words, but I mean, it is what it is, you know? I gotta make that play. There’s just no excuse about it, no matter what anyone says.”

He supplied the technical detail himself. “I fielded the ball and I think I should have taken another couple more steps toward first,” Ortiz said, describing the throw in harsher terms than his manager or teammates did. Bauers, who could not come up with the short hop, called it “a little in-between pick” and added: “Sometimes you get ’em, sometimes you don’t.”

It was the second throw Ortiz had skipped across the diamond. Two batters into his appearance, Bauers saved him with a pick. The 12th offered no such cover. Shane Drohan inherited Caminero and never recorded an out.

Liam Hicks singled to left; pinch runner Cedric Mullins scored on Jonny DeLuca’s single up the middle, Chandler Simpson singled to load the bases and Ben Williamson, 1-for-15 in the postseason, clipped the first pitch he saw into right field. Five straight Rays reached base.

Cooper Pratt Sends Message to Joey Ortiz After Postseason Blunder

Milwaukee Brewers shortstop Cooper Pratt had spent the top of the inning doing the opposite. The 22-year-old rookie shortstop led off the 12th against left-hander Ian Seymour and hit a 2-2 sweeper 396 feet into the left-field bleachers, his fourth hit of the night, for a 3-2 lead.

“That was probably one of the coolest swings of my life,” Pratt said, “but it’s over.” Afterward, he sent a message to Joey Ortiz following Game 4's World Series conclusion, noting,

“Flush it. I’ve made about seven of them this postseason. So what? Next pitch. And next pitch is tomorrow.”

Pratt had his own play to flush, having been thrown out trying to steal second in the ninth after the Rays challenged the safe call and won. “I think a loss is a loss,” he said. “Losing by 10 runs is the same as losing by one run in the 12th. It’s over. It’s done with.”

Christian Yelich was equally brief on Joey Ortiz. “Joey will be fine,” he said. “That kind of stuff happens.” The Brewers did have a case for hard luck. Jacob Misiorowski starts Game 5 on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on four days’ rest, after allowing one run over five innings in Game 1.