Milwaukee Brewers claim first championship with 4-1 victory over Tampa Bay Rays

The Milwaukee Brewers have won their first World Series title after defeating the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in Game 5 on Wednesday night. The victory caps a 58-year franchise history that began with the Seattle Pilots in 1969. The win concludes a series in which the Brewers came back from a three-game deficit.

Jacob Misiorowski started the game and threw 5 2/3 innings of two-hit baseball without allowing a run. The 24-year-old right-hander left the game due to a right calf cramp. He delivered 58 strikes on 86 pitches, with two fastballs reaching 103 mph. Misiorowski had previously broken the Series velocity record with a 103.5 mph pitch on the opening day of the tournament.

Rookie Cooper Pratt played a central role in the offense. He recorded two hits and two runs batted in. Pratt set a Series rookie record by collecting six consecutive hits before grounding out in the sixth inning. His sixth hit came in the fifth inning, where he scored on a single by David Hamilton. Jackson Chourio finished the series with 11 hits, setting a five-game record.

The Brewers built their lead in the second inning when Pratt singled off Rays ace Drew Rasmussen to take a 1-0 advantage. William Contreras added an RBI double in the sixth inning off Garrett Cleavinger. Pratt followed with a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 4-0. The Rays scored their only run in the ninth inning on an RBI double by Chandler Simpson with two outs.

Manager Pat Murphy led his team to the title. Murphy survived a heart attack in 2020 and won the National League Manager of the Year award in 2024 and 2025. The Brewers finished the regular season with 103 wins, leading the majors. They went 11-2 in the postseason, including a sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.

The Rays now hold a 0-3 record in World Series history. They are the fifth team to lose in Game 5 after dropping the first three games. The team had a 4-0 lead in their final outing in Game 4 but could not hold it. This series marked the first since 1991 to feature two teams from the bottom half of the payroll rankings.

A management lockout is scheduled to begin on Dec. 2, which could threaten the 2027 season. Owners have pushed for a salary cap, arguing it allows small-market teams to compete. The Brewers ranked 19th in payroll as of Aug. 31, while the Rays ranked 25th. This championship comes at a time when the players' association and owners are negotiating the terms of their next collective bargaining agreement.