Brewers are champions at last: Milwaukee beats Rays 4-1 in Game 5 to win first World Series title

A title 58 years in the making

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida — The Milwaukee Brewers are World Series champions for the first time in franchise history. Milwaukee beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in Game 5 on Wednesday night, 28 October, at Tropicana Field, closing out the best-of-seven series 4-1 and ending a wait that stretched back to the franchise's birth as the Seattle Pilots in 1969.

Closer Trevor Megill retired Richie Palacios on a grounder to second for the final out, threw his arms in the air and was mobbed by teammates while thousands of Brewers fans who had travelled from Wisconsin celebrated in the stands. The title comes in the club's 58th season. Its only previous trip to the World Series, in 1982, ended in a Game 7 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.

One night earlier, Milwaukee had stood three outs from a sweep before Tampa Bay won Game 4 in 12 innings. There was no such reprieve this time. The Brewers scored in the second, fifth and sixth innings, their bullpen covered the final four and one-third innings, and Tampa Bay's only run came with two outs in the ninth.

The Miz sets the tone

Second-year ace Jacob Misiorowski, 24, threw five and two-thirds scoreless innings of two-hit ball, walking one and striking out two on 86 pitches, 58 of them strikes. He left in the bottom of the sixth with a right calf cramp, walking off under his own power to a standing ovation from the Brewers fans who had taken over the section behind Milwaukee's dugout for the last three games.

Misiorowski started and won Games 1 and 5, finishing the series 2-0 with a 0.84 earned run average. He had already broken the World Series velocity record with a 103.5 mph fastball on the first pitch of the series, and he opened Game 5 with 12 straight four-seam fastballs between 100.9 and 103 mph. Leg cramps had forced him out of two outings earlier in the season, but nothing knocked him off his line on the night Milwaukee needed him most.

Tampa Bay starter Drew Rasmussen, pitching on three days' rest, retired the first four batters and allowed one run on two hits in four innings, striking out four, before Milwaukee broke through against the Rays bullpen.

Pratt keeps delivering

Rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt, 22, was again at the centre of everything. In the second inning, Brice Turang lined a double to left-centre and Sal Frelick was hit by a pitch before Pratt ripped a single to centre to score Turang for a 1-0 lead. Pratt was thrown out in a rundown trying for second, but Milwaukee had the only run it would need for more than three innings.

Pratt singled again in the fifth for his sixth straight hit in the series, a rookie record, went to third on Garrett Mitchell's single and scored on David Hamilton's single off Kevin Kelly to make it 2-0. In the sixth, Christian Yelich was hit by a pitch and scored on William Contreras's double, Turang's bloop single moved Contreras to third, and Pratt's sacrifice fly brought him home for a 4-0 lead. Pratt finished with two hits and two RBIs, and Jackson Chourio set a five-game series record with 11 hits.

Tampa Bay's best chance came in the fourth, with runners on second and third and two outs. Ben Williamson, the hero of Game 4, grounded to third, and David Hamilton's throw sailed high — but first baseman Jake Bauers stretched and made the catch to end the threat.

The bullpen finishes it

JoJo Romero got two outs after Misiorowski departed, Abner Uribe recorded two more, and Megill pitched the last two innings. The Rays finally broke through in the ninth, when Liam Hicks doubled and Chandler Simpson doubled him home with two outs to make it 4-1. Megill then got Palacios on the grounder that ended the series, and the celebration began.

William Contreras, whose sixth-inning double had broken the game open, held the World Series Most Valuable Player trophy as the Brewers celebrated. Manager Pat Murphy, National League Manager of the Year in each of his first two full seasons in 2024 and 2025, had guided a team built on small-ball baseball to the top of the sport.

What it means

Milwaukee led the majors with 103 regular-season wins and went 11-2 in the postseason, including seven comeback victories and a sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. This was the first World Series since 1991 between two teams in the bottom half of payrolls — Milwaukee 19th, Tampa Bay 25th.

For Tampa Bay, an expansion team that debuted in 1998, the defeat means an 0-3 record in World Series appearances, after losses in 2008 and 2020. The Rays had hoped to become the first team to fall behind 3-0 in a World Series and force a sixth game; instead they became the fifth team in that position to lose in Game 5.

For Milwaukee, the parade is scheduled for Friday, 30 October, in downtown Milwaukee, running along Wisconsin Avenue to the lakefront, with officials anticipating a crowd of at least 400,000. The celebrations also carried a dedication: Bob Uecker, the beloved broadcaster known as Mr. Baseball, died of cancer in January 2025 without seeing the Brewers crowned champions. "He's smiling, man, he's smiling. I really wish he could've been here to see this," an emotional Christian Yelich said afterwards. After 58 seasons, the smallest market in the majors finally has its champions.