The Milwaukee Brewers are World Series champions for the first time in franchise history after beating the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in Game 5 on Wednesday night, 28 October 2026, at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. Milwaukee closed out the best-of-seven series four games to one, ending a wait that stretched back to the franchise’s first season in 1969.
The clincher followed a familiar pattern for this Brewers team. The pitching held Tampa Bay down, the rookie at shortstop delivered again, and the bullpen finished the final outs without letting a ninth-inning rally change the ending.
How Game 5 was won, inning by inning
Milwaukee struck first in the second inning against Rays starter Drew Rasmussen. Brice Turang doubled, and rookie Cooper Pratt drove him in with a single to centre field for a 1-0 lead.
The Brewers added a run in the fifth when David Hamilton’s single to right field scored Pratt, making it 2-0. Milwaukee then broke the game open in the sixth, when William Contreras doubled off the left-field wall to score Christian Yelich, before Pratt’s sacrifice fly brought Contreras home for a 4-0 lead.
Tampa Bay finally scored in the ninth, when Chandler Simpson’s two-out double drove in Liam Hicks. Trevor Megill then got Richie Palacios to ground out to second base for the final out, and the celebration began.
| Inning | Milwaukee scoring | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 2nd | Cooper Pratt RBI single scores Brice Turang | Brewers 1, Rays 0 |
| 5th | David Hamilton RBI single scores Cooper Pratt | Brewers 2, Rays 0 |
| 6th | William Contreras RBI double scores Christian Yelich | Brewers 3, Rays 0 |
| 6th | Cooper Pratt sacrifice fly scores William Contreras | Brewers 4, Rays 0 |
| 9th | Chandler Simpson RBI double scores Liam Hicks | Brewers 4, Rays 1 |
Misiorowski sets the tone, then leaves with a cramp
Jacob Misiorowski gave Milwaukee 5 2/3 scoreless innings in the biggest start of his young career. He allowed two hits and one walk, struck out two, and left in the sixth inning because of a cramp in his right calf.
It was his second win of the World Series, after he also won the opener in Milwaukee. The Game 5 preview had framed the night as Misiorowski’s chance to finish the job, and he kept Tampa Bay scoreless long enough for the offence to build its lead.
JoJo Romero and Abner Uribe bridged the gap to Megill, who handled the final two innings. The bullpen allowed only the ninth-inning run, closing out a series in which Milwaukee’s pitching repeatedly made small leads stand up.
Pratt’s record run and Contreras’s MVP case
Pratt finished Game 5 with two hits and two runs batted in, continuing a remarkable two-game stretch. His sixth-inning sacrifice fly came after he had already recorded six consecutive hits across Games 4 and 5, a World Series record for a rookie.
Jackson Chourio also left his mark on the series, finishing with 11 hits in the five games. Hamilton, meanwhile, drove in a run for a fourth straight game, a run of timely hitting that helped Milwaukee keep scoring even when the middle of the order was quiet.
The series MVP honour went to Contreras, who hit .381 with four runs batted in across the five games, according to Bleacher Report. The Reuters report on Game 5 also noted Contreras’s sixth-inning double, which turned a two-run lead into a three-run cushion at exactly the moment Tampa Bay needed a stop.
A series Milwaukee controlled from the start
| Game | Date and venue | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Game 1 | Friday, 23 October, Milwaukee | Brewers 3, Rays 2 |
| Game 2 | Saturday, 24 October, Milwaukee | Brewers 5, Rays 4 |
| Game 3 | Monday, 26 October, St. Petersburg | Brewers 10, Rays 1 |
| Game 4 | Tuesday, 27 October, St. Petersburg | Rays 4, Brewers 3 (12 innings) |
| Game 5 | Wednesday, 28 October, St. Petersburg | Brewers 4, Rays 1 |
Milwaukee won the first two games by one run at home, then broke Game 3 open in Florida. Milwaukee’s 10-1 Game 3 rout put the Brewers within one win of the title, and Tampa Bay’s extra-inning win in Game 4 only delayed the outcome by a night.
The Brewers finished the postseason 11-2, after beating San Diego in the National League Division Series and sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. That run, built on pitching depth and a lineup that kept finding one more hit, now ends with the franchise’s first championship.
What the title ends, and what comes next in Milwaukee
Milwaukee’s only previous World Series trip ended in a seven-game loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1982. The franchise began play as the Seattle Pilots in 1969 before moving to Milwaukee the following year, so this title closes a chapter that several generations of Brewers fans had waited to see finished.
Tampa Bay, meanwhile, is still seeking its first championship after also losing the World Series in 2008 and 2020. The Rays won 98 regular-season games and reached the final round, but they could not solve Milwaukee’s pitching when the series returned to Florida.
USA TODAY, citing Brewers officials, reported that Milwaukee’s parade is scheduled for Friday, 30 October 2026, in downtown Milwaukee. The USA TODAY parade report said the route would begin on Wisconsin Avenue and finish at the lakefront, with an anticipated crowd of at least 400,000.
For Milwaukee, the next celebration is already planned. For the rest of baseball, the question now is whether the smallest-market team in the majors has just started a run, rather than finished one.
