Brewers Beat The Rays 4–1 In Game 5 To Win The First World Series Title In Franchise History

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Milwaukee Brewers are World Series champions for the first time. One night after they stood three outs from the title and lost in the 12th inning, the Brewers finished the job in Game 5 on Wednesday, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 4–1 at Tropicana Field to win the Series four games to one, behind 5⅔ scoreless innings from ace Jacob Misiorowski and two more run-scoring plays from rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt. Thousands of Milwaukee fans who had taken over the section behind the Brewers’ dugout for three games took over the whole ballpark for the trophy presentation, and they were still chanting “Let’s go Brewers!” almost two hours after the final pitch, the Associated Press reported. The crowd was 40,489.

The Miz, On The Mound And Off It Early

Misiorowski (2–0 in the Series) allowed two hits and one walk in 5⅔ innings, struck out two — matching his career low — and left with a 4–0 lead and a right calf cramp, to a standing ovation. He had opened the night with 12 straight four-seam fastballs between 100.9 and 103 mph, a week after breaking the World Series velocity record with a 103.5 mph first pitch in Game 1; on Wednesday he pitched to contact instead of hunting strikeouts, fought a landing spot on the mound that the grounds crew had to refill inning after inning, and still recorded his longest outing since September 8. He finished the Series 2–0 with a 0.84 ERA, having also won the opener, 3–2, with one run allowed in five innings. “I don’t even have words,” Misiorowski said. “It’s amazing, just watching my guys celebrate. And the city — I know they’re going crazy in Milwaukee. It’s awesome.” The 24-year-old two-time All-Star is the favourite for the National League Cy Young Award.

Small Ball Builds The Lead

Milwaukee scored in the second inning against Rays starter Drew Rasmussen, pitching on short rest: Brice Turang doubled, Sal Frelick was hit by a pitch, and Pratt singled to centre to score Turang before being thrown out stretching for second. Rasmussen held it there — one run on two hits over four innings — but the bullpen did not. In the fifth, Pratt singled off Kevin Kelly for his sixth straight hit in the Series, a rookie record, and scored on David Hamilton’s single to right. In the sixth, Garrett Cleavinger hit Christian Yelich with a pitch, World Series MVP William Contreras doubled to left to score him, and Pratt’s sacrifice fly brought Contreras home for 4–0. It was the Series in miniature: the two teams combined for only four home runs in five games, three by Milwaukee, and no club in the majors scored a smaller share of its runs on homers this season than the Brewers’ 32.1 per cent, the Elias Sports Bureau reported — Tampa Bay was second-lowest, at 34.4 per cent.

The Bullpen Holds, This Time

Twenty-four hours after the bullpen finally faltered in the 12th, it closed the season. JoJo Romero got two outs, Abner Uribe got two more, and closer Trevor Megill pitched the last two innings. The Rays’ only run came with two outs in the ninth: Liam Hicks doubled and Chandler Simpson doubled to right to score him, before Megill retired Richie Palacios on a grounder and was mobbed on the mound. The line: Milwaukee 4 runs, 8 hits, 2 errors; Tampa Bay 1 run, 4 hits, no errors. “Milwaukee has waited 44 years, and Milwaukee, you have your world championship,” owner Mark Attanasio said from the postgame stage.

MVP And The Record Book

Contreras was named World Series MVP: he hit .381 with four RBIs, drove in a run in the clincher, set a franchise record with 19 postseason hits, threw out four baserunners in the first four games — the first catcher to do that in a World Series since Lance Parrish in 1984 — and turned the new automated ball-strike challenge system into a weapon behind the plate. Jackson Chourio’s 11 hits set a record for a five-game Series. Pratt, who made his major-league debut in June, finished a Series that included a four-hit Game 4 and the go-ahead 12th-inning homer that nearly ended it a night early. “This is one of the greatest moments of my life,” Pratt said. “It doesn’t even feel real. It’s surreal. It only took four months!”

58 Seasons

The title comes in the franchise’s 58th season: the club began as the Seattle Pilots in 1969 and moved to Milwaukee the following year. Its only previous World Series, in 1982, ended when the Brewers blew a 3–1 lead in the sixth inning of Game 7 and lost 6–3 to St. Louis; Milwaukee’s only other major-league championship was the 1957 Braves’, before that club moved to Atlanta. This team, from the majors’ smallest market, won a major-league-best 103 regular-season games and went 11–2 in the postseason, sweeping the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. It was the first World Series since 1991 between two teams in the bottom half of the payroll table — Milwaukee 19th, Tampa Bay 25th. Manager Pat Murphy, 67, who survived a heart attack in 2020 and was the National League Manager of the Year in 2024 and 2025, said: “This group of guys right here, the 2026 team, will be remembered forever — and they deserve that, because they were a team.” Captain Christian Yelich: “It’s the best feeling ever. All of our fans are here. I know the city’s waited a long, long time for this. We’re so happy to bring it home to them.” The Rays, who debuted in 1998, fell to 0–3 in the World Series after defeats in 2008 and 2020. “They’re banged-up and hurting right now, but just grateful for the way they carried themselves all season long,” manager Kevin Cash said. The celebration may also mark a pause for the sport: the AP reported a management lockout is likely to begin December 2, in a dispute over a salary cap, and could threaten the 2027 season.

Sources: The Associated Press; USA Today; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Sportradar (box score) — reporting of October 28–29, 2026.