World Series Game 5 Preview: Brewers Turn to Ace Jacob Misiorowski to Finish the Rays at Tropicana Field

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Milwaukee Brewers' second chance to close out their first World Series title comes Wednesday night at Tropicana Field, and they are spending their best card on it: Jacob Misiorowski, the National League Cy Young Award favorite, is scheduled to start Game 5, the Associated Press reported. Misiorowski also started the first game of each of Milwaukee's three playoff series, and manager Pat Murphy made the stakes plain: "It's all hands on deck." The Brewers lead the series 3-1; first pitch is 7 p.m. Central on Fox.

Tampa Bay's side of the matchup is still unwritten. Manager Kevin Cash said he hadn't decided on a starter yet after Tuesday's 4-3, 12-inning escape, and his lineup has one open question of its own: third baseman Junior Caminero, whose leadoff grounder opened the winning rally, hobbled off with an ailing left foot and was replaced by Cedric Mullins. Caminero said he'll definitely play Wednesday night. "He'll play tomorrow on one leg. I'll make sure of it," Cash said.

History, unusually, argues both ways. Tampa Bay became just the fifth of 26 teams that fell behind 3-0 in a World Series to win Game 4 - and the previous four all lost Game 5. But the Rays are also just the fourth team in Series history to avoid elimination with an extra-inning comeback, according to OptaSTATS, and the first three - the 1912 Red Sox, the 1986 Mets and the 2011 Cardinals - all went on to win the championship. One of those two streaks ends Wednesday night: either Milwaukee celebrates its first title on the Rays' field, or the Series goes back to Wisconsin for Game 6 on Friday with Tampa Bay still alive.