The small-ball Milwaukee Brewers, playing in the smallest market in the majors, are World Series champions for the first time.
Young ace Jacob Misiorowski threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings, rookie Cooper Pratt had two more hits and two runs batted in (RBIs), and the Brewers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in Game 5 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.”
AP
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