Brewers end 44-year drought with 4-1 win over Rays

Milwaukee Brewers catcher Christian Yelich stood on the field at Tropicana Field Wednesday night to tell fans in the smallest market in baseball that their long wait was over. The Brewers defeated the Tampa Bay Rays, 4-1, in Game 5 of the World Series to claim the franchise's first championship.

The victory capped a postseason in which the Brewers went 11-2. They scored a major league-low 32.1% of their runs on home runs during the regular season, a strategy that held firm in the Series. The teams combined for only four home runs in the seven-game span, with Milwaukee accounting for three of them.

Jacob Misiorowski led the pitching staff with 5.2 scoreless innings. The 24-year-old right-hander threw 86 pitches, 58 for strikes, and topped out at 103 mph on two fastballs. He left the game due to a right calf cramp but received a standing ovation from the crowd. He allowed just two hits and one run in the Series, finishing with a 0.84 earned run average.

Rookie Cooper Pratt, who made his major league debut in June, set a World Series record with six consecutive hits before his final plate appearance. He drove in two runs, including a single in the second inning that gave the Brewers a 1-0 lead. William Contreras, named Series MVP, added an RBI double in the sixth inning. Jackson Chourio finished with 11 hits, setting a five-game Series record.

Manager Pat Murphy, 67, guided the team through a season that included a 4-3 extra-inning loss in Game 4. The 67-year-old manager survived a heart attack in 2020 and won National League Manager of the Year awards in 2024 and 2025. He described the 2026 roster as a group that prioritized winning over individual statistics.

The championship marks the 58th season for the franchise, which began as the Seattle Pilots in 1969. The team's only previous World Series appearance came in 1982, when they lost the deciding game to the St. Louis Cardinals. The Rays, an expansion team that debuted in 1998, dropped to 0-3 in World Series history after losing to the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series last year. Manager Kevin Cash said his players were grateful for the way they competed despite the losses.

Owners are currently negotiating with the players' association over a salary cap, a move driven by the success of small-market teams like the Brewers. A management lockout is expected to begin December 2. This was the first World Series since 1991 contested between two teams with payrolls in the bottom half of the league. Milwaukee ranked 19th and Tampa Bay ranked 25th as of August 31.