Milwaukee does not wait for an invitation. With their Brewers up two games to none in the World Series, thousands of Wisconsin fans packed their sunscreen and powder blue gear and headed for St. Petersburg, Florida. By the time Game 3 started Monday night, Tropicana Field felt a lot more like a Milwaukee home game than a Rays one.

The trip started before dawn. Milwaukee outlets described Mitchell International Airport as buzzing with Brewers fans at 4 a.m. Monday. Once they landed, the visitors spread across town, casting fishing lines off the St. Pete Pier, filling the bars on Central Avenue and crowding into a sports bar across the street from the dome to show off fresh sunburns and their Game 3 tickets.

The math made the trip worth it

Part of the draw was simple economics. Tickets for the first two games at American Family Field had soared past $2,000 on the resale market. In Florida seats were still available close to first pitch. A few hours before the game the cheapest way in averaged about $422, a drop of nearly half in three days, according to TicketData. For plenty of fans, a flight to Florida suddenly looked like a bargain.

They even took the stretch

The two teams wear similar blue and yellow, but nobody was confused about who owned the crowd. When the seventh-inning stretch came around, Brewers fans took over "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" as if they were back in Milwaukee. Pitcher Jacob Misiorowski said the players noticed during batting practice. As soon as the gates opened, he said, the seats filled with Brewers fans.

Manager Pat Murphy said the players notice and appreciate how far their fans will go. All season, he said, the team has walked into road parks a long way from Wisconsin and found surprising numbers of Brewers people waiting for them. He called it a really neat thing.

Fans got a show for their money

The traveling crowd got its money's worth. Milwaukee cruised to a 10-1 win and a 3-0 series lead. A wild fifth inning produced eight runs, a major league postseason record seven straight hits and a World Series record eight runs with two outs. Jackson Chourio collected four hits, while Robert Gasser threw six scoreless innings in the longest start by a Brewers pitcher this postseason.

Now the Brewers are one win from their first championship and the sunburned army in St. Petersburg is not exactly in a hurry to fly home.