57 Years, One Night: How the Brewers Finally Won the World Series

At 11:13 p.m. in St. Petersburg, Fla., a ground ball rolled to second baseman Brice Turang, and 57 years of waiting ended with one throw to first. The Milwaukee Brewers, a franchise that had never won a World Series, beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in Game 5 on Wednesday night to finish the series in five games.

It was the first championship for Milwaukee in any major league since the Braves won the World Series in 1957. In the city, about 31,000 fans watched the final innings on the scoreboard at the Brewers’ empty ballpark, according to MLB.com, then poured into the streets.

The way Milwaukee won matters as much as the result. This was not a team that bought a title or bludgeoned opponents with home runs. It was a team that pitched, defended and ran, and that kept finding a new hero every night.

How Game 5 was won

Milwaukee never trailed. The Brewers scratched out a run in the second inning when Cooper Pratt singled off Drew Rasmussen, who was starting on three days’ rest. Pratt, a rookie shortstop, scored again in the fifth, and in the sixth the Brewers added two more off the Rays’ bullpen on a William Contreras double and a Pratt sacrifice fly.

That was plenty for Jacob Misiorowski. The right-hander held Tampa Bay scoreless into the sixth inning, allowing four baserunners, before a cramp in his right calf forced him out with two outs. JoJo Romero and Abner Uribe bridged the gap, and closer Trevor Megill handled the last two innings, giving up a single run in the ninth before getting Turang’s game-ending grounder.

The series, game by game

The Brewers won the first three games, each in a different way. In Game 1 they held on even after a would-be game-ending double play was overturned. In Game 2 they came back from four runs down after the first inning. In Game 3 they scored eight runs in one inning, a record-setting rally that turned the game into a 10-1 rout. The Rays answered with a 12-inning walk-off in Game 4, with Milwaukee three outs from the title, before the Brewers closed it out the next night.

Who carried them

William Contreras, the MVP. The catcher’s .863 OPS was only part of his series. He threw out three runners trying to steal, won 10 of his 13 challenges under baseball’s new automated ball-strike system, and called the games for a staff that held a good Rays lineup to a .182 average. “I feel like I’m the best catcher in the league,” he said afterward, and few in St. Petersburg would argue.

Cooper Pratt, the rookie. Pratt hit safely in six straight World Series at-bats, the first player to do that since David Ortiz in 2013, and became only the second rookie to drive in seven runs in a World Series.

Jackson Chourio. The outfielder collected 10 hits in the first four games, matching a mark held by Babe Ruth.

A bullpen that would not crack. Aaron Ashby threw 18 consecutive scoreless innings this postseason, a record for a reliever in a single postseason.

Manager Pat Murphy, 67, a two-time National League Manager of the Year, summed it up in four words: “We were relentless.”

The 57-year road

The Brewers were born as the Seattle Pilots in 1969 and moved to Milwaukee a year later. They have come close before, and the near-misses explain why this one landed so hard in Wisconsin.

There was also the grief that hung over the club. Bob Uecker, the Hall of Fame broadcaster who called Brewers games for more than five decades, died in January 2025. Clubhouse manager Tony Migliaccio, who started as a batboy in 1978, carried a coin from Uecker’s wife, Judy, bearing his face and his famous sign-off throughout the run.

Why it matters beyond Milwaukee

Baseball has no salary cap, and the sport’s richest teams often win in October. The Brewers’ payroll ranked 19th, and they finished 28th in home runs. They won with pitching depth, defense, speed and a farm system that kept producing players like Pratt and Misiorowski. For every mid-market club, from Cleveland to Kansas City, that is a blueprint worth studying.

What is next for fans

The city will celebrate on Friday. The parade starts at 10 a.m. CT at N. 4th St. and W. Wisconsin Ave. and moves through downtown to the Summerfest grounds, according to MLB.com. If you are going, plan for road closures downtown, arrive early, and check the city’s and the team’s official channels on Friday morning for transit and security updates.

For the Brewers, the question now is whether a team built this way can do it again. Most of the core, from Contreras and Chourio to Pratt and Misiorowski, is young. “We came in with a spirit about us,” Murphy said, “and we weren’t going to be denied.” In Milwaukee, for one week at least, nobody is thinking about next year.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Brewers beat Rays in Game 5 to win first World Series in franchise history · MLB.com, Oct. 28, 2026
2. Brewers close out Rays in Game 5 for 1st World Series title · ESPN, Oct. 28, 2026
3. 2026 World Series schedule and results · ESPN
4. 2026 MLB playoff bracket: schedule and scores · CBS Sports