The Brewers can sweep the World Series on Tuesday. They sent right-hander Dustin May to the mound in Game 4 at Tropicana Field, with a 3-0 lead over the Rays. Yahoo Sports' preview said Milwaukee was one win from its first World Series title. Its game-day post framed it as the chance to complete a sweep and win the first championship in franchise history. Other Yahoo threads put it more simply: "Tampa Bay must win tonight," and this is "possibly the last major league game of the season."

Through the first half of the game, the sweep has not been automatic. Our box score has it tied 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth. Tampa Bay scored first, with one run in the second inning. David Hamilton homered for Milwaukee, and Cooper Pratt doubled in a run. Chandler Simpson doubled in the Rays' first run. May went three innings and threw 39 pitches. He allowed three hits and two earned runs, struck out three and walked none. JoJo Romero and Abner Uribe each followed with a scoreless inning, and Uribe struck out two. Griffin Jax started for Tampa Bay and went four innings, giving up two runs and striking out six.

May's season gives a reason the Rays might have expected to get to him. He finished the regular season with a 4.70 ERA over 31 games, 145.2 innings, 144 strikeouts and a 7-9 record. The Rays also hit him hard on March 29, scoring six earned runs on 10 hits in four innings. Whether that history mattered on Tuesday is not something we can say yet. The early damage was two runs, and it was limited.

The Rays are in a hole they did not dig in the regular season. They won 98 games and the AL East at 98-64. Milwaukee won 103 and the NL Central at 103-59. The Brewers have won five straight, including a 10-1 win at Tampa Bay on Monday, Oct. 26, and a 5-4 win on Saturday, Oct. 24. That one-run game is the only close finish in the series so far.

The tone in the Yahoo community threads splits by allegiance. One poster there wrote that the chances of Milwaukee winning the series were "very, very high," and another rooted openly against any comeback from 3-0 down. These are fan posts, not reporting, and none of the feed summaries we have include quotes from players or managers.

If the Rays hold on, the schedule shows another game at Tropicana Field on Wednesday, Oct. 28. The series would then return to Milwaukee for a game scheduled for Friday, Oct. 30. Milwaukee needs one win in that stretch. Tampa Bay needs all of them.