The Milwaukee Brewers are World Series champions for the first time in franchise history, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in Game 5 on Wednesday night at Tropicana Field to cap a 4-1 series victory and end a wait that began when the franchise was born as the Seattle Pilots in 1969.
Before a crowd thick with Brewers fans who had traveled from Wisconsin, Milwaukee finished a dream season with pitching, timely hitting and a bullpen that would not break.
The Miz delivers — then leaves to an ovation
Second-year ace Jacob Misiorowski threw five and two-thirds scoreless innings of two-hit ball, striking out two and walking one, before leaving with a right calf cramp and a standing ovation from the Brewers fans behind Milwaukee’s dugout. The 24-year-old, who led the majors with 252 strikeouts this season, had also started and won Game 1.
“My heart was racing,” Misiorowski said after the game. “I was nervous as everyone on that field. It’s really cool that they trust me enough to do that.” Of the cramp, he shrugged: “Just a cramp. Happy I left it all out on the field.”
His first 12 pitches were all four-seam fastballs, from 100.9 to 103 mph, but he did not strike out anyone until the 14th batter he faced. It did not matter: the Rays made contact all night and could do nothing with it.
Pratt, the rookie who would not stop hitting
Rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt drove in two more runs, giving him a Series rookie record with six straight hits across Games 4 and 5 — including what could have been the Series-clinching homer in the top of the 12th the night before, when the Rays staved off elimination in 12 innings.
Pratt opened the scoring in the second inning, lining a single to center off Drew Rasmussen to score Brice Turang. In the fifth, David Hamilton singled home Pratt to make it 2-0. In the sixth, after Garrett Cleavinger hit Christian Yelich with a pitch, William Contreras doubled to left to score him, and Pratt’s sacrifice fly brought Contreras home for a 4-0 lead.
Jackson Chourio set a five-game Series record with 11 hits. The bullpen — JoJo Romero, Abner Uribe and closer Trevor Megill — covered the final four and one-third innings without allowing a run. Tampa Bay finally scored in the ninth, when Liam Hicks doubled and scored on Chandler Simpson’s double, but Megill finished it for the title.
How the series went
| Game | Result |
|---|---|
| Game 1 | Brewers 3, Rays 2 |
| Game 2 | Brewers 5, Rays 4 |
| Game 3 | Brewers 10, Rays 1 |
| Game 4 | Rays 4, Brewers 3 (12 innings) |
| Game 5 | Brewers 4, Rays 1 — Brewers win series 4-1 |
A title 58 seasons in the making
The championship comes in the franchise’s 58th season. The Brewers’ only previous trip to the World Series, in 1982, ended in heartbreak when they blew a 3-1 lead in the sixth inning of Game 7 and lost 6-3 to the St. Louis Cardinals.
This team was dominant from start to finish: 114 wins including the playoffs, an 11-2 October, and a World Series win over a Rays team that had refused to go quietly. Along the way Milwaukee dethroned the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, whose $338 million roster earned more than double Milwaukee’s $144 million.
The win was also dedicated to Bob Uecker, the beloved broadcaster known as Mr. Baseball, who died of cancer in January 2025. “He’s smiling, man, he’s smiling. I really wish he could’ve been here to see this,” an emotional Christian Yelich said on Fox Sports. Manager Pat Murphy added: “I know the man Ueck upstairs is looking down.”
What to watch next
Milwaukee’s celebration comes next — a parade for a team long defined by the stars it lost. For Tampa Bay, the offseason begins with a different question: how to get back.
Sources: USA Today, “Brewers are World Series champions! Milwaukee wins first title in franchise history” (Oct. 28, 2026); NBC Sports, “Brewers beat the Rays 4-1 in Game 5 to win the first World Series title in franchise history” (Oct. 28, 2026); USA Today, “The Miz takes Brewers to promised land” (Oct. 29, 2026).
