Halloween is nigh, and while I feel a little bit tricked, fans in Milwaukee have been given the ultimate baseball treat—A World Series! Friends of the Comic Book Clique, it's the Weekly MLB Report!
I really wanted this series to go seven games - I'm sure we all wanted this series to go seven games. The Brewers had finally unseated the Dodgers, the Rays were the best the American League had to offer, it just felt right that this would be the evenly fought matchup to go the distance. The Brew Crew had other ideas. When your city waits 56 years to see their club win a World Series, the motivation to give them that title as soon as possible is there.
(Photo by Hannah Schroeder / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
The first two games were competitive and had me believing this might go the distance. In game one, we saw a pitching matchup that I thought would favor the Rays: veteran Nick Martinez vs. Brewers young phenom, Jacob Misiorowski. Martinez was coming off his best start of the postseason, giving up one run over 5 ⅓ innings to the Guardians in game four of the ALCS. Misiorowski hadn’t gotten out of the fifth inning in either of his first two starts this October. I thought maybe the lights might be too bright for the 24 year old. This will be one of several things I was wrong about in this series.
To be fair to The Miz, he wasn’t terrible in those two starts. Over 8 ⅓ innings, he gave up three runs and struck out 11 and more importantly, the Brewers ended up winning both of those games. He took them further in game 1, completing five innings (!!) and allowing just a run to score, giving that historically great bullpen a lot to work with. Martinez wasn’t far behind in his efforts, matching the five innings, but with two runs given up. Game 1 was a game of inches and the Brewers took miles.
Brewers captain Christian Yelich, kicked off the scoring for them in this Fall Classic in the bottom of the first with the only triple in the entire series. By the way, what a strategic move by the Brewers organization to name Yelich their captain right before the playoffs started. The second longest tenured Brewer, who has seen a lot with this organization and the city of Milwaukee. I can’t help but feel this really invigorated a team that was going to play hard no matter what but played even harder with and for their leader. An intangible move that only made them better. How many captains in the MLB would truly be OK with being benched in a playoff game for the betterment of their team?
Williams Contreras, who we will be talking more about later, and Jackson Chourio would join in with an RBI each in this game and that would be enough for the Brewers to take a 1-0 series lead. Without Liam Hicks, the Rays don’t score in game 1 and somehow, with all of the momentum Yandy Diaz, Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero had after the ALCS, Hicks was their most productive hitter. Once again, Pat Murphy’s bullpen shined, four innings of one run ball.
(Photo by Getty Images)
Game 2 started with hope for the Rays in the form of a four spot in the first inning. The offense was showing life; Diaz got on base via a throwing error from Cooper Pratt, Aranda, Chandler Simpson and Caminero followed with singles and Hicks blasted the only home run in the series for the Rays. That hope would turn out to be false and, to be fair to the Rays, the Dodgers fell for that same hope in Game 4 of the NLCS. They too got off to an early 4-0 lead and likely thought they’d have a better night than their previous but that’s the thing about this Brewers team. No lead felt insurmountable, no lead would deter them from the ultimate goal. And much like that game, the Brewers didn’t rage back all at once, they took their time and broke the Rays down over the next seven innings to take the lead, getting contributions from everywhere.
In the bottom of the first, they cut the lead in half, first executing a perfect hit-and-run with Contreras at the plate and runners on first and third that gave them their first run and set them up for their second that would score not long after.
Three innings later, David Hamilton, once again with runners on first and third, slapped a ball to first base and like Bill Buckner in ‘86, it went through the legs of Aranda for a run to score. In the sixth, Sal Frelick, with 22 career home runs to his name over three and a half seasons, hit one of the more unlikely ones; A solo shot to dead center off of lefty Rays reliever, Ian Seymour, that tied the game. Then, the dagger. Rookie Cooper Pratt, called up from Triple-A in the middle of June, lined a ball to right with two outs and Brice Turang on third to put the Brewers ahead. All the while, the Brewers bullpen pitched six near-perfect innings, giving up four hits and no runs.
This is the theme. Eight of the nine hitters in the lineup either scored a run or brought a run in. Five members of the bullpen pitched and kept the game exactly where it needed to be for the offense to come back after Logan Henderson’s rough first inning. Half of the roster played pivotal roles in a game that could’ve easily gotten out of hand after being down 4-0 before they even came to bat. After game 2, I was convinced: Pat Murphy’s club is built different.
And if I had that sentiment after game 2, game 3 was about to flip this series on its head. Patrons of Tampa Bay, feel free to look away - we’re talking about game 3.
(Photo by Jovanny Hernandez / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
The Brewers struck first, nothing atypical there. Just like in game 1, their captain put their first run on the board, followed by William “Momma, there goes that man again” Contreras to put up their second. Nothing to fret about if you’re the Rays. Sure, they got to Freddy Peralta early and he’d only given up two runs in his past four postseason outings and he gave two runs in just one inning here but that shouldn’t be a bad omen. Unless you believe in bad omens, in which case, it was a bad omen.
All was quiet going into the top of the fifth, including the Rays bats. They mustered a single in the first inning to that point but it was just a two run deficit, nothing a rally couldn’t get them back into. Except that rally came from the opposing team. Chourio would get his first hit of the inning with one out and no one on base. That’s not a typo by the way, it was Chourio’s first hit of the inning. Jake Bauers would get the second out of the inning right after. I think it best if we run down what happens next and keep in mind that this is all with two outs in the inning:
Yelich walks, two runners on
Contreras singles (replay needed to confirm), bases loaded
Turang singles off of Taylor Walls’ glove, two runs score (2)
Mitchell singles, run scores (3)
Pratt doubles, two runs score, (5)
Frelick doubles, run scores (6)
Hamilton singles, run scores (7)
Chourio doubles, run scores (8)
A record seven straight hits with two outs, eight runs scored and every Tampa Bay Rays fan realizing this series is as good as over.
It was just the fifth inning of game 3 of the World Series but by the end of it, it really was over. Robert Gasser would pitch six innings of one hit ball before passing it over to, checks notes, Antonio Senzatela and, feel-good story and longest-tenured Milwaukee Brewer, Brandon Woodruff to close the game out. Tampa scratched a run out in the 9th off the latter when Diaz thought he pimped a ball to left-center, when in reality, he doubled off of a guy who hadn’t pitched since the Semiquincentennial.
History was on the Brewers side. They had a 3-0 series lead, it’s the kiss of death. No team since 1905, the first year a seven game World Series was played, has ever come back from being down 3-0. Hell, no team has ever forced a game 6. While I love to play optimist, this Rays team didn’t have enough fight to warrant any percentage of my optimism.
And sure, the Rays took game 4 in a return to competitive baseball after the ultimate ass whooping. That fifth inning of game 5, more or less, sealed the door on this series and the only price the Brewers paid for it was a tired offense the following day that lost on a walkoff in extra innings. Even the only game the Rays won would have to come with max effort and luck. A fielding error from third baseman, Joey Ortiz, and Shane Drohan pitching after 12 days rest because he was the last possible option. A win is a win, but this was as hollow a win as there is.
(AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
The inevitable was here. Game 5, at The Trop, with the Brewers ahead 3-1 in the series and history dictating that this would be the game they would win the World Series. Has history ever been wrong? Yes. Just not here.
As mentioned earlier, this Rays team had no fight in them. I could keep it simple and say the Brewers were the better team and it’d be true but, more than that, I’m not sure the Rays truly believed they could beat the Brewers. Game 3 may have been their worst performance overall but game 5 wasn’t much better. They didn’t give up ten runs (hooray!) but managing to get just four hits got them nowhere.
Cooper Pratt, David Hamilton and William Contreras provided the offense on this night and Misiorowski, pitching his second game of this series, had his best outing yet: 5 ⅔ innings, two hits allowed. JoJo Romero, Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill would mow through the Rays the rest of the way, as they did all World Series, as they did to everyone all postseason really. A pedestrian game 5, all things considered but one where the Brewers had to keep their foot on the gas to win their first championship in franchise history:
A ground ball to Turang at second, over to Bauers at first and the celebration both in Tampa and in the state of Wisconsin began. A ball that Bauers would later gift to Pat Murphy once the celebration calmed for a moment.
The 2026 Brewers had one of the most complete teams in recent memory with many historical highlights, ironically surrounding the number four:
They held the fourth longest drought before winning their first championship in MLB history at 57 years (Yes, we’re counting that 1969 season as the Seattle Pilots)
Their bullpen, that we spoke so much about, finished with the fourth lowest bullpen ERA in postseason history with a 1.38 ERA
Third team since 1969, the beginning of the Expansion Era, to now allow more than four runs in any postseason game
Cooper Pratt recorded six consecutive hits, most by a rookie in the World Series
Aaron Ashby gave up no runs in 18 innings, setting the record for most consecutive scoreless innings in a postseason
World Series MVP, William Contreras was successful in 10 of his 13 ABS challenges in the World Series. This is historical because it’s the first year a World Series features the ABS challenges.
Ok so that last one can be considered “fake” but, until a catcher beats that rate, Contreras will hold that newly created record. Seriously, fake record aside, there was no better pick for the MVP of this series than William Contreras.
Yes, Ashby was lights out in the three games he pitched in the series. Yes, Cooper Pratt has now burst onto the scene and provided some real heroics in the back half of the series. William Contreras affected every game, whether it was in a clutch spot at the plate early in games to help provide momentum, catching Chandler Simpson stealing or giving his pitchers confidence boosts with his phenomenal ABS calls, the Brewers backstop was at the forefront. For the Venezuelans of the Brewers, Contreras, Chourio and Senzatela, it is the second championship they hold up this year after winning the World Baseball Classic and I hope this celebration brought a moment of levity to what has been nothing short of a difficult year for Venezuelans.
It cannot be understated how much of a team effort this championship was. Baseball is a team sport, obviously, but so often is the hot streak of a player or two a key difference in winning a World Series. Not this time and not this team. They had five hitters with an OPS above .800, they had four pitchers pitch five or more innings with an ERA under 1.00 - three of them didn’t give up any runs. The Brewers seemingly did everything right.
For the Rays, it’s their third World Series appearance and they will go home with nothing to show for that. They were outmatched at every facet. I said they had the advantage offensively, even if I believed that it would have to be on the backs of three bats: Yandy Diaz, Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero.
They went 11-for-57. They collectively drove in two runs. What happened instead is Chandler Simpson hit .400 and Liam Hicks led the team with four runs batted in. Their contributions were needed, for sure, but they were not supposed to lead the way, not if the Rays had any intention of winning this World Series. Batting Simpson third in the lineup was laughable. I tried to see the vision, Chandler getting on base enough in front of Caminero would lead to runs, but the number three hole isn’t meant for players with Simpson’s particular set of skills. Even batting him 6th where he had more success isn’t the best use of his skills. He belongs hitting in front of that trio I keep calling out. Whether that’s leadoff or ninth matters not. I put a solid amount of blame on that aforementioned trio of hitters as to why the Rays looked outclassed but it’s not just theirs to bear.
I also said the Rays had the starting pitcher advantage too, even felt rock solid in that assessment. Much like the first three letters of that word, I feel like an ass. The pitching duo of Drew Rasmussen and Freddy Peralta, the same duo that only gave up five runs over 37 ⅔ innings before the Fall Classic, gave up nine runs in 12 ⅓ innings.
I am honestly not sure which of those failed statements I published for the world to see makes me angrier.
I heard and read the words “team of destiny” thrown at the Brewers, as if the Rays had lucked out again. But that’s poppycock. A big ol’ bag of malarkey. Balderdash. I would never reduce the grand efforts of a long season where Milwaukee had the most wins in the regular season, faced the hottest team in baseball at the time in the NLDS in the San Diego Padres, swept the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers and brought hellfire to the best team the American League had to offer in the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Rays were unprepared and took advantage of a weak American League but the truth is, the Brewers weren’t just the crown jewel of the National League, they ruled Major League Baseball this year, with an iron fist (and a foam cheesehead).
This would be where I leave you normally. With your How can you not be romantic about baseball moment. But, we’re at the end of another baseball season, heading into an offseason that will undoubtedly show off the ugliest side of baseball.
Before we get there, I want to show off the most beautiful part of baseball. The time-honored tradition of watching The National Pastime with multiple generations, the only sport I know that really gets passed down from parents to children and in most cases, like mine, from father to son. You have no idea how honored I am to write about baseball in any capacity and my love for this sport started with my late dad.
It warms my heart to see generations, young and old, celebrating a first championship. For the fans who’ve stuck it out for all 56 years in Milwaukee, to the ones who are just starting their love affair with this team and every fan in between, congratulations.
The Milwaukee Brewers are the champions of baseball.