Chandler Simpson made two plays in Game 4 that, taken together, explain why Tampa Bay is still playing baseball. In the ninth inning, with the game scoreless and the season hanging in the balance, Simpson made an impressive catch that denied Garrett Mitchell a potential go-ahead RBI. In the 12th inning, with the Rays trailing 3-2 and down to their final outs, Simpson singled to load the bases, setting up Ben Williamson’s walk off hit to right field in a 4-3 win over Milwaukee. A catch and a single, separated by three innings, saved a season that had looked finished twice in one night.
The context makes both plays larger. Simpson went 3 for 5 with an RBI double in Game 4, continuing a postseason in which his speed, contact and defense have become central to Tampa Bay’s identity. He is 25, a native of Atlanta, a 2022 second round draft pick who was demoted to Triple-A last season after being judged a defensive liability, and who finished fourth in the major leagues with a .306 batting average this year while becoming a Gold Glove finalist. The catch in the ninth was therefore not just a good play. It was evidence that the defensive judgment that once demoted him no longer describes him.
The ninth inning catch
Mitchell’s ball, had it fallen, would have given Milwaukee a lead in the ninth inning of a scoreless game, with Tampa Bay facing elimination. Simpson’s catch denied that lead, and denied Milwaukee the chance to win the game in regulation. It also preserved a scoreless stretch that had already lasted 11 innings after the fifth, a stretch in which both bullpens traded scoreless frames while the season hung in the balance. Catches like that do not appear in a box score as dramatically as a home run, but they change games just as surely, because they remove runs that the other team has already imagined scoring.
The 12th inning single was different in kind. Tampa Bay trailed 3-2 after Milwaukee rookie Cooper Pratt, who finished with four hits, hit a solo home run in the top of the 12th. Junior Caminero reached on a throwing error to open the bottom half, Jonny DeLuca singled to tie the game, and then Simpson singled to load the bases. Williamson’s hit scored the winning run, but Simpson’s single created the pressure that made Williamson’s hit possible, by giving Tampa Bay three runners and Milwaukee no margin for error.
Two plays, one identity
After the game, Simpson told television that the Rays would keep fighting to the last inning, the last out, the last player and the last pitch. Reports of the comeback quoted that line, and Daily News Blend’s earlier account of Simpson’s gem showed a player whose fielding had already defined a game in this series. Game 4 added a second definition: a player whose bat, in the 12th inning, loaded the bases for a season saving win. Game 5 on Wednesday night will test whether that identity can carry Tampa Bay one more night, or whether Milwaukee’s 3-1 lead reasserts itself. Either way, Simpson has already given the Rays two plays they will remember, whatever the series brings.
