Brewers win first World Series title, defeat Rays 4-1 in Game 5

Jacob Misiorowski’s scoreless outing anchors Milwaukee’s title-clinching win

The Milwaukee Brewers, playing in Major League Baseball’s smallest market, won the first World Series title in franchise history Wednesday night, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in Game 5 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. Rookie Cooper Pratt had two hits and two RBIs, and starter Jacob Misiorowski threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings before leaving because of a right calf cramp. Thousands of Brewers fans in attendance set off a long-awaited celebration.

Captain Christian Yelich said, “It’s the best feeling ever. All of our fans are here. I know the city’s waited a long, long time for this,” and added, “We’re so happy to bring it home to them. I can’t wait to get back there and celebrate.” The championship ended a 44-year wait since Milwaukee’s 1982 AL title, the franchise’s only previous World Series trip. That trip ended when the Brewers blew a 3-1 lead in the sixth inning of Game 7 and lost 6-3 to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Pratt gave Milwaukee a 1-0 lead with an RBI single against Rays ace Drew Rasmussen in the second. Rasmussen, pitching on three days’ rest, allowed one run and two hits over four innings and went deeper than he had in Game 2. The Rays held a 4-0 lead before Rasmussen took the mound in Milwaukee on Saturday, but he lasted 3 2/3 innings as the Brewers rallied for a 5-4 victory. In Game 5, Pratt singled for his sixth straight hit in the fifth and scored on David Hamilton’s single off Kevin Kelly. World Series MVP William Contreras hit an RBI double off Garrett Cleavinger in the sixth, and Pratt added a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0. Misiorowski received a standing ovation from Brewers fans who had taken over the section behind Milwaukee’s dugout for the last three games.

Pratt’s six straight hits set a World Series rookie record before his sacrifice fly, while Jackson Chourio’s 11 hits set a five-game Series record. The 22-year-old Pratt, who made his major league debut in June, said, “This is one of the greatest moments of my life. Oh my gosh. It doesn’t even feel real.” He added, “This is surreal. It only took four months!”

The 24-year-old, two-time All-Star Misiorowski broke the World Series velocity record with a 103.5 mph fastball on the first pitch of the Series last Friday. He opened with 12 straight four-seamers between 100.9 and 103 mph, topped out at 103 twice among his 86 pitches and threw 58 strikes. The right-hander did not record a strikeout in his first three innings for the first time in his two-year career and finished with two, matching his career low. He pumped his fist twice and punched the air after Yandy Díaz missed a cutter to end the fifth.

Misiorowski, the NL Cy Young Award favorite, went 2-0 with a 0.84 ERA in the Series, allowing one run over five innings to earn his first postseason win as a starter in a 3-2 victory in the opener. His Game 5 start came on four days’ rest, only the fifth time in 34 starts that season including the playoffs, and was his longest outing since throwing 6 1/3 innings against the Cubs on Sept. 8. Leg cramps also forced him out of two outings earlier in the season. He said, “I don’t even have words. It’s amazing, just watching my guys celebrate. And the city — I know they’re going crazy in Milwaukee. It’s awesome.”

Rasmussen retired his first four batters before Brice Turang lined a double to left-center. Sal Frelick was hit by a pitch, and Pratt ripped an RBI single to center but was thrown out in a rundown between first and second. With runners on second and third and two outs in the fourth, Ben Williamson grounded out. Williamson, who was 1 for 15 in the postseason before his game-winning single in the 12th inning of Game 4, started over lefty-swinging Palacios. Kelly replaced Rasmussen to start the fifth and allowed consecutive one-out singles to Pratt, Garrett Mitchell and Hamilton.

Milwaukee’s bullpen closed the final innings. JoJo Romero got two outs, Abner Uribe recorded two more, and Trevor Megill pitched the last two. Megill allowed an RBI double to Chandler Simpson with two outs in the ninth, then retired Richie Palacios on a grounder to second to end the game. Megill threw his arms in the air and was mobbed by teammates near the mound while Brewers fans celebrated in the stands.

The Brewers rebounded from a 4-3 extra-inning loss in Game 4, when they were three outs from a sweep in the 12th before their bullpen finally faltered. Pratt had gone 4 for 5 with a tiebreaking solo homer in the 12th inning of Game 4. The team was managed by 67-year-old Pat Murphy, who survived a heart attack in 2020 and was the NL Manager of the Year in his first two full seasons at the helm in 2024 and 2025. Murphy said, “This group of guys right here, the 2026 team, will be remembered forever — and they deserve that because they were a team. They’re not worried about their own stats. No one cares about that. They care about coming together and winning tonight.”

The championship came in the 58th season for a franchise that began as the Seattle Pilots in 1969 and moved to Milwaukee the following year. Milwaukee’s only other MLB championship was won in 1957 by the Braves, who moved to Atlanta for the 1966 season. Murphy’s team finished what Harvey Kuenn’s star-studded crew could not accomplish 44 years earlier as the AL champions.

Kuenn’s 1982 club featured five Hall of Famers: Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Ted Simmons, Don Sutton and Rollie Fingers. Fingers missed the postseason with a forearm injury, and Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Uecker worked the games from the booth.

Milwaukee led the majors with 103 wins in the regular season and went 11-2 in the postseason, including seven comeback wins and a sweep of the Dodgers in the NLCS. The teams combined to hit just four homers in the Series, three for Milwaukee. The Brewers scored a major league-low 32.1% of their runs on homers, while Tampa Bay was second-lowest at 34.4%, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

The Rays, an expansion team that debuted in 1998, dropped to 0-3 in the World Series after defeats in 2008 and 2020. The only other clubs to lose in their first three Series appearances were the Brooklyn Dodgers, at 0-7, and the Detroit Tigers, at 0-4, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Tampa Bay was trying to become the first team to fall behind 3-0 in a World Series and force a sixth game. Of the 26 teams that lost the first three games, 21 were swept, and Tampa Bay became the fifth to lose in Game 5. Rays manager Kevin Cash said, “They’re banged-up and hurting right now, but just grateful for the way they carried themselves all season long, winning a bunch of games. It’s as close-knit of a group as I’ve ever been around.”

The Brewers won at a time when Major League Baseball owners were pushing the players’ association for a salary cap, maintaining that small-market teams cannot regularly succeed. A management lockout was likely to start Dec. 2 and could threaten the 2027 season. It also might have been the last Major League Baseball game for an extended period. This was the first Series since 1991 between teams in the bottom half of payrolls; the Brewers ranked 19th and the Rays 25th as of Aug. 31. From the postgame stage, Brewers owner Mark Attanasio said, “Milwaukee has waited 44 years, and Milwaukee, you have your world championship.”