Brewers Beat Rays 4-1 to Claim First World Series Title in Franchise History

The Milwaukee Brewers are World Series champions for the first time. On Wednesday night, the club from the smallest market in the majors beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in Game 5 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, while thousands of Brewers fans in attendance celebrated.

Young ace Jacob Misiorowski threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings and allowed just two hits before leaving with a right calf cramp. Fans in Brewers gear, who had taken over the section behind Milwaukee's dugout for the last three games, gave him a standing ovation. Rookie Cooper Pratt had two more hits and two RBIs, and World Series MVP William Contreras added an RBI double.

"It's the best feeling ever. All of our fans are here. I know the city's waited a long, long time for this," captain Christian Yelich said. Pratt, who made his major league debut in June, called it "one of the greatest moments of my life," adding: "It only took four months!"

The 22-year-old Pratt set a Series rookie record with six straight hits before his sacrifice fly in the sixth inning. Jackson Chourio set a five-game Series record with 11 hits. Pratt put Milwaukee ahead 1-0 with an RBI single off Rays ace Drew Rasmussen in the second, then scored in the fifth on a single by David Hamilton. Contreras doubled in a run in the sixth, and Pratt's sac fly made it 4-0.

Misiorowski, 24, pitched on four days' rest. He broke the World Series velocity record with a 103.5 mph fastball on the first pitch of the Series last Friday, and on Wednesday he opened with 12 straight four-seamers between 100.9 and 103 mph. He finished with two strikeouts and 86 pitches. JoJo Romero and Abner Uribe each got two outs, and closer Trevor Megill pitched the final two innings. Chandler Simpson drove in Tampa Bay's run with a ninth-inning double, and Megill ended it by retiring Richie Palacios on a grounder to second.

The Brewers bounced back from a 4-3, 12-inning loss in Game 4, when they were three outs from a sweep. The title arrives 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 trip, in 1982, ended with a 6-3 Game 7 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. "Milwaukee has waited 44 years, and Milwaukee, you have your world championship," owner Mark Attanasio said from the postgame stage.

Manager Pat Murphy, 67, survived a heart attack in 2020 and was NL Manager of the Year in 2024 and 2025. "This group of guys right here, the 2026 team, will be remembered forever, and they deserve that because they were a team," he said. Milwaukee led the majors with 103 regular-season wins and went 11-2 in the postseason, including a sweep of the Dodgers in the NLCS.

The Rays fell to 0-3 in World Series appearances, following defeats in 2008 and 2020. Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said of his players: "They're banged-up and hurting right now, but just grateful for the way they carried themselves all season long."

The result comes as owners press the players' association for a salary cap, arguing that small-market teams cannot regularly succeed. A management lockout is likely to begin Dec. 2 and could threaten the 2027 season. This was the first Series since 1991 between teams in the bottom half of payrolls, with the Brewers ranked 19th and the Rays 25th as of Aug. 31.