Brewers Win First Title, 4-1, in Game 5

MILWAUKEE BREWERS 4, TAMPA BAY RAYS 1. The Brewers closed out Game 5 at Tropicana Field on Wednesday night to claim the franchise's first World Series championship. Jacob Misiorowski started for Milwaukee and threw 5 2/3 innings without giving up a run. Cooper Pratt collected two hits and two RBIs.

Misiorowski left the game with a right calf cramp. The crowd behind Milwaukee's dugout, filled with Brewers fans for the last three games, gave him a standing ovation as he walked off.

Pratt, 22, recorded six straight hits in the Series before adding a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning. Jackson Chourio collected 11 hits over the five games, a Series record for that span. William Contreras added an RBI double off Garrett Cleavinger in the sixth to make it 4-0.

Misiorowski threw 86 pitches, 58 of them strikes, and reached 103 mph twice. He had opened the Series last Friday with a 103.5 mph fastball, a Series record. He finished with two strikeouts, matching his career low. He was 2-0 with a 0.84 ERA across his Series starts.

The Rays scored in the ninth when Chandler Simpson hit an RBI double off Trevor Megill with two outs. Megill then retired Richie Palacios on a groundout to second to end the game. JoJo Romero recorded two outs and Abner Uribe added two more before Megill worked the final two innings.

Drew Rasmussen started for Tampa Bay on three days' rest and gave up one run on two hits in four innings. Kevin Kelly relieved him to start the fifth and allowed consecutive singles to Pratt, Garrett Mitchell and David Hamilton. Milwaukee's run in the second came off a Pratt single.

The Brewers finished the regular season with 103 wins, the most in baseball, and went 11-2 in the postseason. That included seven comeback wins and a sweep of the Dodgers in the NLCS. Milwaukee scored 32.1% of its runs on home runs, the lowest share in the majors, while Tampa Bay sat second-lowest at 34.4%, per the Elias Sports Bureau.

This was Milwaukee's first Series appearance since 1982, when the Brewers led the Cardinals 3-1 in Game 7 before losing 6-3. The franchise began as the Seattle Pilots in 1969 and moved to Milwaukee in 1970. The only other championship in the city's history belongs to the Braves, who won in 1957 before moving to Atlanta for the 1966 season.

Tampa Bay, an expansion club that began play in 1998, fell to 0-3 in World Series appearances after losses in 2008 and 2020. Milwaukee ranked 19th in payroll as of Aug. 31 and Tampa Bay ranked 25th. This was the first Series since 1991 between teams in the bottom half of payrolls.

A management lockout could begin Dec. 2 and affect the 2027 season.