Milwaukee waited 44 years for another World Series trip, and on Wednesday night the wait ended in St. Petersburg. The Brewers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in Game 5 to win the first World Series title in franchise history, closing out a series they led from the start and refused to let slip after Tuesday’s 12 inning scare. The celebration began among thousands of Brewers fans behind the Milwaukee dugout at Tropicana Field, a road crowd that had taken over sections of the ballpark for the final three games.
Young ace Jacob Misiorowski set the tone, throwing five and two thirds scoreless innings of two hit ball before leaving with a right calf cramp to a standing ovation. Rookie Cooper Pratt drove in two runs, and William Contreras added an RBI double in a sixth inning that stretched the lead to 4-0. Tampa Bay did not score until the ninth, when Liam Hicks doubled and Chandler Simpson doubled him home, but Trevor Megill finished the game and the series. The Brewers beat the Rays 4-1 in Game 5 to complete a 4-1 series win.
Small ball, big finish
The final game looked like so many Milwaukee wins this season. The Brewers scored first in the second inning, when Pratt singled home Brice Turang, added a run in the fifth on a David Hamilton single, and then broke the game open in the sixth. It was not a power display. It was patience, baserunning and pitching, the formula that carried a team with the best record in baseball, 103 wins and 59 losses, through a postseason in which it finished 11-2 and outscored opponents 59-33.
Pratt, 22, set a Series rookie record with six straight hits before his sacrifice fly in the sixth, while Jackson Chourio set a five game Series record with 11 hits. The franchise began as the Seattle Pilots in 1969 and moved to Milwaukee the following year, and its only previous World Series trip, in 1982, ended in a Game 7 loss to St. Louis. Wednesday night rewrote that history, and it did so in the smallest market in the majors, with the 19th highest payroll in baseball.
What Tampa Bay takes away
For the Rays, the loss extends a painful record. They have now reached three World Series and won none, and this defeat, like the 2008 loss to Philadelphia, came in five games. Tuesday’s 12 inning win, sealed by Ben Williamson’s walk off hit after Simpson’s refusal to fold, will stand as the night this team showed its character. Wednesday showed the gap it still has to close: four hits against Milwaukee pitching, and a ninth inning rally that arrived one inning too late. The Brewers, meanwhile, head home as champions for the first time, with a parade to plan and a roster built to contend again.
