Shane Drohan's blown World Series clincher echoes Jeff Hoffman's Game 7 Blue Jays heartbreak

In back-to-back years now, a team has had a chance to clinch the World Series, but a reliever couldn’t get the final out.

In 2025, it was Jeff Hoffman. The Blue Jays’ closer gave up a game-tying home run to Miguel Rojas in the ninth inning of Game 7 at Rogers Centre. It quieted the Toronto crowd in the moment, and the LA Dodgers eventually won in 11 innings to capture their second straight title.

Last night (Oct. 27, 2026), Milwaukee’s Shane Drohan found himself in the same situation. The Brewers had taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the 12th inning of Game 4 at Tropicana Field thanks to a solo shot from rookie Cooper Pratt, leaving them three outs away from the first championship in franchise history.

Antonio Senzatela started the bottom half of the inning, but the Rays’ Junior Caminero promptly reached base on a throwing error by third baseman Joey Ortiz. In came Drohan, tasked with sealing the biggest win in Brewers franchise history.

But it didn’t go the way he had hoped. Liam Hicks singled. Jonny DeLuca singled to score the tying run. Chandler Simpson singled to load the bases. Then pinch-hitter Ben Williamson singled home the winning run to force a Game 5.

Unlike Hoffman and the Blue Jays, the Brewers still get another chance

Of course, the stakes were certainly high considering it was a World Series game, but at least the Brewers get another chance. The Blue Jays didn’t have that luxury when their World Series clinch evaporated. Sure, they still had a chance to walk it off - but it was also Game 7.

The two situations are also a bit different because Hoffman was the Blue Jays’ closer, and despite his up-and-down regular season, he had dominated in the playoffs. While he gave up a league-leading 15 home runs (as a closer), Hoffman hadn’t allowed a long ball in the postseason until that point.

In fact, he had allowed only one earned run on five hits over 11 innings pitched, with 16 strikeouts. That’s about as dominant a playoff run as you can ask for from your closer when the season’s most important games are being played.

Drohan, meanwhile, isn’t an experienced closer in the least – though he does have two career saves. He started 19 of his 33 appearances for the Brewers this year, pitching to a 4.19 ERA with 125 strikeouts in 124.2 innings.

This is the 27-year-old left-hander’s first year in the big leagues, and Tuesday was his first time on the mound since Game 4 of the NLCS, when he opened the game and was asked to pitch one inning against the LA Dodgers. He allowed one run on one hit and two walks with one strikeout in Milwaukee’s 6-4 series-clinching win.

By the time Tuesday night's game got to the 12th though, Brewers manager Pat Murphy had already used most of his main bullpen arms. After Dustin May opened the game with three-plus innings, JoJo Romero finished the fourth. Abner Uribe allowed just a single hit across the fifth and sixth. DL Hall pitched the seventh and got two outs in the eighth before Murphy gave the ball to Trevor Megill for the final out of that frame.

Aaron Ashby then threw 2.1 hitless innings with three strikeouts, covering the ninth and tenth and getting the first out of the 11th before handing the ball to Senzatela for the final two outs of that inning.

The Brewers get another chance to finish off the series in Tampa Bay this evening (Wed., Oct. 28), while the Rays will try to do something no team has ever done in World Series history – come back from a 3-0 series deficit.

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