For most of their history, the Milwaukee Brewers were the kind of team that made the playoffs now and then and went home early. On Wednesday, October 28, 2026, that changed. Milwaukee beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in Game 5 at Tropicana Field to win the World Series four games to one, the first championship the franchise has ever won.

Closer Trevor Megill finished it. With two outs in the ninth, a soft ground ball went to second baseman Brice Turang, whose throw to first baseman Jake Bauers set off the celebration in front of 40,489 fans in St. Petersburg.

How Game 5 was won

Jacob Misiorowski, the hard-throwing young right-hander, started for Milwaukee and held the Rays down for five and two-thirds innings before a calf cramp forced him out. Cooper Pratt drove in the first run of the night, and the Brewers added more in the fifth and sixth, including an RBI double from William Contreras.

Then the bullpen did what it had done all month. JoJo Romero and Abner Uribe bridged the sixth and seventh innings, and Megill took the final six outs. The only Rays run came in the ninth on a Chandler Simpson RBI double, which was far too late to matter.

The series, game by game

  • Game 1: Brewers 3, Rays 2.
  • Game 2: Brewers 5, Rays 4.
  • Game 3: Brewers 10, Rays 0. An eight-run fifth inning turned a tight game into a rout and gave Milwaukee a 3-0 series lead.
  • Game 4: Rays win in 12 innings. Pratt homered in the top of the 12th, but Ben Williamson won it for Tampa Bay in the bottom of the inning with a walk-off chopper.
  • Game 5: Brewers 4, Rays 1.

A Rays win in Game 5 would have kept alive a chance at history, because no team has ever come back from 3-0 down in a World Series. Instead, Tampa Bay remains one of four major league clubs, along with the Padres, Rockies and Mariners, that have never won the title.

Contreras, the MVP behind the plate

William Contreras earned the World Series MVP award with a series that showed off everything a modern catcher does. He had eight hits, struck out only once and threw out three runners trying to steal. He also won 10 of his 13 challenges under the automated ball-strike system, the new rule this season that lets players ask a computer to review a disputed ball or strike call. A catcher who knows the strike zone that well is quietly adding outs and taking away runs.

Outfielder Jackson Chourio added 11 hits in the five games.

Built on pitching and defense

This was not a slugging championship. Only four home runs were hit in the entire series, the fewest in a World Series since 1985. Milwaukee won with pitching, defense and contact hitting:

  • The Brewers’ bullpen posted a 1.38 ERA over 65 postseason innings.
  • Left-hander Aaron Ashby threw 18 scoreless innings across the playoffs.
  • Milwaukee went 11-2 in October and outscored its opponents 59-33. Both losses were by a single run.

The path was hard, too. After an MLB-best 103 wins earned them a bye, the Brewers beat the San Diego Padres in four games, then swept the Los Angeles Dodgers, the champions of the past two seasons, in the NL Championship Series.

A long time coming

The franchise began in 1969 as the Seattle Pilots, lasted one season there and moved to Milwaukee in 1970. Its only previous World Series appearance came in 1982, when the Brewers lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. The last time Milwaukee celebrated a baseball title was 1957, when the city’s team was the Braves, who later moved to Atlanta.

Milwaukee is one of the smallest markets in the majors, and its payroll is nowhere near those of the biggest spenders. The Brewers have kept winning anyway by developing their own players and trading well. Manager Pat Murphy, 67, took over before the 2024 season, and outfielder Christian Yelich told teammates in a meeting in late July that they were going to win the World Series. They took him at his word.

What we think

Baseball’s playoffs are often called a lottery, and short series do reward luck. That makes this run more impressive, not less. Milwaukee lost only twice in a month, swept the two-time defending champions and won with the least glamorous formula in the sport: a deep bullpen, sharp defense and hitters who put the ball in play.

It is also a good result for the sport. A small-market team proving it can beat the biggest payrolls gives fans in a lot of cities a reason to believe. For Wisconsin, the wait is over; for every other team without a title, Milwaukee just drew the blueprint.