Brewers beat the Rays 4-1 in Game 5 and win the first World Series title in their 57 seasons in Milwaukee

The Milwaukee Brewers won the World Series on Wednesday night, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in Game 5 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, to take the series four games to one. The title ends a wait that began when the franchise moved to Milwaukee in 1970; MLB.com describes 2026 as the club’s 57th year in the city and calls the win Milwaukee’s first World Series title since the 1957 Braves (MLB.com). The final out came at 11:13 p.m. ET, or 8:13 p.m. PT, when Richie Palacios hit a ground ball to second baseman Brice Turang, who threw to first baseman Jake Bauers, according to MLB’s official game feed (MLB game feed).

MLB’s game feed lists a first pitch at 8:08 p.m. ET (5:08 p.m. PT), a crowd of 40,489 and a running time of three hours and five minutes (MLB game feed; MLB.com box score). Milwaukee finished with eight hits and two errors; Tampa Bay managed four hits. MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy reports that the Brewers won 11 of their 13 postseason games, after a franchise-record and major-league-best 103 regular-season wins, a division-series win over the Padres and a four-game sweep of the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series (MLB.com).

The scoring started in the second inning. Cooper Pratt, the Brewers’ 22-year-old rookie shortstop, lined a single to center that scored Turang, though Pratt went out trying to reach second on the throw, the game feed shows (MLB game feed). In the fifth, Pratt singled again and scored on David Hamilton’s single to right. In the sixth, Contreras doubled to left to score Christian Yelich, and Pratt’s sacrifice fly to right brought Contreras home for a 4-0 lead (MLB game feed).

Pratt’s fifth-inning single set a rookie record, according to MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo: hits in six straight World Series plate appearances, passing the five by the Yankees’ Brian Doyle in 1978 (MLB.com). DiComo reports that the streak began with an RBI double in the fourth inning of Game 4 and included a go-ahead home run in the 12th inning of that game, which the Rays won on a walk-off; he calls Pratt the first player of any kind with hits in six straight World Series plate appearances since David Ortiz in 2013, with Billy Hatcher’s seven in 1990 still the record (MLB.com). Before Game 5, manager Pat Murphy said, “This kid just continues to amaze you,” DiComo writes (MLB.com).

On the mound, Misiorowski allowed two hits, a walk and a hit batter over 5⅔ scoreless innings on 86 pitches, according to MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch and the game feed (MLB.com; MLB game feed). Hoch reports a fastball average of 101.1 mph, no strikeout until the fourth inning for the first time in his career, and an exit in the sixth after a right calf cramp that Hoch calls an apparent recurrence of an issue from earlier in the year (MLB.com). His tightest spot came in the fourth: Chandler Simpson singled and reached second on an error by right fielder Sal Frelick, and with runners at second and third and two outs, Misiorowski got Ben Williamson to ground out (MLB.com).

The Brewers’ bullpen finished the game. JoJo Romero and Abner Uribe each recorded two outs, and Trevor Megill threw the last two innings, giving up the Rays’ only run on Simpson’s ninth-inning double that scored Liam Hicks, according to the game feed (MLB game feed). Drew Rasmussen took the loss for Tampa Bay after four innings in which he allowed one run on two hits and struck out four; six Rays relievers followed him (MLB game feed).

Contreras won the World Series MVP award. CBS Sports’ Mike Axisa reports that he went 8 for 21 (.381) with four RBIs and one strikeout in the series, won 10 of 14 challenges under the automated ball-strike system, and threw out four of nine runners who tried to steal (CBS Sports). Through an interpreter, Contreras said, “I want to thank all of them,” referring to his teammates and Murphy, CBS reports; reliever Aaron Ashby said of him, “He wants to compete every day” (CBS Sports). CBS calls him the first catcher named World Series MVP since Salvador Perez in 2015, and Milwaukee stations WISN and TMJ4 posted on X that he became the eighth catcher voted the award (CBS Sports; @WISN12News; @tmj4). The Brewers acquired him in a December 2022 three-team trade with Atlanta and Oakland, according to CBS (CBS Sports).

Back in Milwaukee, McCalvy reports, 31,000 fans watched on the video board at American Family Field, 1,200 miles from the game (MLB.com). WISN reported thousands of people celebrating in Milwaukee’s Deer District after the final out (WISN). Yelich, the 34-year-old team captain who joined Milwaukee in 2018, told MLB.com, “I can’t tell you how many people have told me, ‘I’ve waited my whole life for this,’” and added, “I think any time you win a World Series, it changes a place a little bit” (MLB.com).

The club announced a Championship Celebration for Friday, Oct. 30, according to WTMJ and WISN. A parade starts at 10 a.m. CT (8 a.m. PT) at N. 4th Street and W. Wisconsin Avenue and runs through downtown to Henry Maier Festival Park, where a rally follows; the festival grounds open at 8 a.m. CT, with free admission until capacity (WTMJ; WISN). WTMJ reports that net proceeds from seated amphitheater tickets will go to the Brewers Community Foundation and that the first 50,000 fans at the rally will get a championship towel; FOX6 plans to air the celebration live (WTMJ). WISN warns of street closures and traffic delays along the route (WISN).

For Tampa Bay, the loss leaves the Rays among four current franchises without a World Series title, along with the Mariners, Padres and Rockies, McCalvy notes (MLB.com). The Rays had forced Game 5 with a 4-3 win in 12 innings on Tuesday night, as this desk reported (Seems News, Game 4). FOX Sports posted an interview with Rays manager Kevin Cash after the game under the line “A tough ending to a very impressive season” (@MLBONFOX on X). This desk found no written postgame comment from Cash in the sources it read.