The Milwaukee Brewers’ 57-season wait for a World Series title ended Wednesday when their victory over Tampa Bay completed one of the most dominant postseasons in MLB history. Once closer Trevor Megill induced a soft ground ball for the final out and their 4-1 victory over the Rays in Game 5 was final, the Brewers rushed up the stairs to their dugout and onto the field at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. The celebration had been in the making for more than half a century. “This is one of the best moments of my life,” Brewers shortstop Cooper Pratt said on Fox after the game. “Oh my God. It doesn’t even seem real. This is surreal.” After moving from Seattle to Milwaukee and first playing as the Brewers in 1970, the team did not reach the World Series until 1982, when it lost in seven games. He then waited 44 years to return to the Fall Classic. Brewers starting pitcher Jacob Misiorowski celebrates after one out during Game 5. Daniel Shirey / MLB Photos via Getty For a franchise hungry for big moments, this year’s team supplied one after another. The Brewers’ 12-2 postseason record is among the best since MLB’s postseason format was expanded in 1995 to include wild-card teams. The Brewers’ .857 winning percentage was just shy of the percentages produced by the 1999 New York Yankees and the 2005 Chicago White Sox, each of whom went 11-1 en route to their own titles. “I don’t even have words,” star pitcher Jacob Misiorowski, who pitched 5 2/3 shutout innings in the deciding game, told Fox after the Game 5 victory. Milwaukee is MLB’s smallest market. Their roster ranked only 19th out of 30 teams. In 12 postseason games, he trailed nine times. But the Brewers won seven of those games by finding ways to prevail in multiple ways. Milwaukee hit seven home runs in the National League Championship Series sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers, but took a 3-0 series lead in Tampa Bay with just one home run. In Game 5, Milwaukee drove in runs with two singles, a sacrifice fly and a double. Cooper Pratt and Brice Turang hug after the Brewers defeated the Rays in Game 5. Carmen Mandato/Getty Coming down to their final out in the bottom of the ninth inning, Tampa Bay got on the board when Chandler Simpson’s two-out double drove in Liam Hicks to cut the deficit to 4-1. With reliever Aaron Ashby waiting to relieve Megill in case he got into more trouble, a soft groundout ended the game. This was no fluke of a feisty team getting hot at the right time. Milwaukee had the second-best record in baseball at the July All-Star break and ultimately won a franchise-record and MLB-high 103 games. After beating San Diego in the divisional round, they swept two-time reigning champion Los Angeles in the National League Championship Series. Although the Dodgers’ payroll was more than double that of the Brewers, Milwaukee scored 10 more runs during the sweep to clinch a spot in the World Series against Tampa Bay. William Contreras scores in the sixth inning. Rob Tringali / MLB Photos via Getty The Rays were in some ways a reflection of Milwaukee, another low-spending franchise looking to turn its regular-season success (the Rays had won the most games in the American League) into its first World Series victory. “Best feeling I’ve ever had,” Brewers captain Christian Yelich said on the broadcast. After one-run victories in the first two games of the World Series, including a Game 2 comeback in which Milwaukee fell behind 4-0 in the first inning, they won Game 3 in a 10-1 rout sparked by Christian Yelich’s stolen base in the fifth inning. When a challenge declared Yelich safe at second base, Milwaukee proceeded to score eight runs with two outs, opening the game without even hitting a home run. Milwaukee’s championship run was made possible by a reliable core of players spanning generations. Yelich, 34, and reliever Brandon Woodruff, 33, whose Game 3 save was his first appearance since July 4 due to injuries, were the only players remaining from a 2018 Brewers roster that was just one win away from that season’s World Series. The Brewers’ Jackson Chourio celebrates from the dugout. Daniel Shirey / MLB Photos via Getty In the divisional round against San Diego, 20-year-old outfielder Jackson Chourio hit a late two-run home run that saved Milwaukee in its first game of the postseason. Chourio then delivered a single to win the next game. On the mound, Milwaukee built a feared arm rotation starting with Misiorowski, the 24-year-old with blazing speed who made the All-Star Game as a rookie in 2025 after just five starts. For his encore, Misiorowski in 2026 led a pitching staff that allowed the second-lowest MLB team ERA during the regular season. When he left games, a bullpen with arms as nasty and strong as Misiorowski’s took over. “This is just unbelievable,” Megill said, on the mound for the final out, after the win. “Ten-year-old me would have been so proud.” All pieces worked, all season. When the regular season ended, Milwaukee was alone at the top of the standings. And when the playoffs ended a month later, the Brewers were on top once again. His long wait for a title was over.
