Brewers beat the Rays 4-1 in Game 5 to win the first World Series title in franchise history

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The small-ball Milwaukee Brewers playing in the smallest market in the majors are World Series champions for the first time.

Hey, Milwaukee: grab a brat, raise a beer and prepare for that parade.

Young ace Jacob Misiorowski threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings, rookie Cooper Pratt had two more hits and two RBIs, and the Brewers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in Game 5 on Wednesday night to set off a long-awaited celebration among thousands of Brewers fans in attendance at Tropicana Field.

“It’s the best feeling ever. All of our fans are here. I know the city’s waited a long, long time for this,” Milwaukee captain Christian Yelich said. “We’re so happy to bring it home to them. I can’t wait to get back there and celebrate.”

World Series MVP William Contreras hit an RBI double and Misiorowski allowed just two hits before leaving the game because of a right calf cramp. He got a standing ovation from the Brew-Crew fans, who took over the section behind Milwaukee’s dugout for the last three games.

The 22-year-old Pratt set a Series rookie record with six straight hits before a sacrifice fly in the sixth. Jackson Chourio set a five-game Series record with 11 hits.

“This is one of the greatest moments of my life. Oh my gosh. It doesn’t even feel real,” said Pratt, who made his major league debut in June. “This is surreal. It only took four months!”

The championship comes in the 58th season for a franchise that began as the Seattle Pilots in 1969 and moved to Milwaukee the following year. 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.

But this team displayed the toughness and resilience of 67-year-old manager 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.

“This group of guys right here, the 2026 team, will be remembered forever — and they deserve that because they were a team,” Murphy said. “When you talk about this team, you’ve got to talk about people who care about each other. They’re not worried about their own stats. No one cares about that. They care about coming together and winning tonight.”

With their flame-throwing, 24-year-old two-time All-Star on the mound, the Brewers rebounded from a heartbreaking, 4-3 extra-inning loss in Game 4 when they were three outs away from a sweep in the 12th before a stellar bullpen finally faltered.

Pitching on four days’ rest for only the fifth time in 34 starts this season, including the playoffs, The Miz had 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.

“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.”

Misiorowski, who broke the World Series velocity record with a 103.5 mph fastball on the first pitch of the Series last Friday, opened with 12 straight four-seamers between 100.9-103 mph. He topped out at 103 twice among his 86 pitches, 58 strikes.

Misiorowski didn’t record a strikeout in the first three innings for the first time in his two-year career and finished with two, matching his career low. He was fired up after Yandy Díaz missed a cutter to end the fifth. The Miz pumped his fist twice and punched the air walking off the mound.

The NL Cy Young Award favorite allowed one run over five innings to get his first postseason win as a starter in a 3-2 victory in the opener. He was 2-0 with a 0.84 ERA in the Series.

JoJo Romero got two outs, Abner Uribe recorded two more and closer Trevor Megill pitched the last two innings, allowing an RBI double to Chandler Simpson with two outs in the ninth.

Megill retired Richie Palacios on a grounder to second to end it, threw his arms in the air and was mobbed by teammates near the mound while Brewers fans celebrated in the stands.

“Milwaukee has waited 44 years, and Milwaukee, you have your world championship,” principal owner Mark Attanasio said from the postgame stage on the field.

Pratt, who was 4 for 5 with a tiebreaking solo homer in the 12th inning of Game 4, gave the Brewers a 1-0 lead with an RBI single against Rays ace Drew Rasmussen in the second. Pratt singled for his sixth straight hit in the Series in the fifth and scored on David Hamilton’s single off Kevin Kelly.

Contreras hit an RBI double off Garrett Cleavinger in the sixth and Pratt added a sac fly to make it 4-0.

Pitching on three days’ rest, Rasmussen went deeper than he did in Game 2, allowing one run and two hits in four innings. He had a 4-0 lead before he took the mound in Milwaukee on Saturday but couldn’t hold it, lasting only 3 2/3 innings as the Brewers rallied for a 5-4 victory.

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 well-executed rundown between first and second. Rasmussen struck out Garrett Mitchell looking to strand a runner at third.

The Rays had runners on second and third with two outs in the fourth but Ben Williamson grounded out to third. Williamson, who was 1 for 15 in the postseason before his game-winning single in the 12th inning of Game 4, started over the lefty-swinging Palacios.

Kelly replaced Rasmussen to start the fifth and allowed consecutive one-out singles to Pratt, Mitchell and Hamilton.

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 and Tampa Bay was second-lowest at 34.4%, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

The Brewers 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 mighty Dodgers in the NLCS.

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 couldn’t accomplish 44 years ago as the AL champions. Harvey’s Wallbangers had five Hall of Famers: Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Ted Simmons, Don Sutton and Rollie Fingers, who missed the postseason with a forearm injury. They also had Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Uecker in the booth.

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 (0-7) and Detroit Tigers (0-4), according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

“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,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said.

This might have been the last Major League Baseball game for an extended period.

The Brewers won the World Series at a time when owners are pushing for a salary cap from the players’ association because they maintain small-market teams can’t regularly succeed. A management lockout is likely to start Dec. 2 and could threaten the 2027 season.

This was the first Series since 1991 between teams in the bottom half of payrolls. The Brewers ranked 19th as of Aug. 31 and Rays were 25th.

The Rays were 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.

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Rob Maaddi, The Associated Press