ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (AP) -- The small-ball Milwaukee Brewers, playing in the smallest market in the majors, are World Series champions for the first time.
Young ace Jacob Misiorowski threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings, rookie Cooper Pratt had two hits and two RBIs, and the Brewers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in Game 5 on Wednesday night, setting off a long-awaited celebration among thousands of Milwaukee fans at Tropicana Field.
"It's the best feeling ever. All of our fans are here. I know the city's waited a long, long time for this," Milwaukee captain Christian Yelich said. "We're so happy to bring it home to them. I can't wait to get back there and celebrate."
World Series MVP William Contreras hit an RBI double, and Misiorowski allowed just two hits before leaving because of a right calf cramp. He received a standing ovation from Brewers fans who had taken over the section behind Milwaukee's dugout for the final three games.
The 22-year-old Pratt set a World Series rookie record with six straight hits before hitting a sacrifice fly in the sixth. Jackson Chourio set a five-game World Series record with 11 hits.
"This is one of the greatest moments of my life. Oh my gosh. It doesn't even feel real," said Pratt, who made his major league debut in June. "This is surreal. It only took four months!"
The championship came in the 58th season for a franchise that began as the Seattle Pilots in 1969 and moved to Milwaukee the following year.
The Brewers' only previous World Series appearance came in 1982, when they blew a 3-1 lead in the sixth inning of Game 7 and lost 6-3 to the St. Louis Cardinals.
This team displayed the toughness and resilience of 67-year-old manager Pat Murphy, who survived a heart attack in 2020 and was named NL Manager of the Year in each of his first two full seasons at the helm in 2024 and 2025.
"This group of guys right here, the 2026 team, will be remembered forever -- and they deserve that because they were a team," Murphy said. "When you talk about this team, you've got to talk about people who care about each other. They're not worried about their own stats. No one cares about that. They care about coming together and winning tonight."
The Brewers rebounded from a heartbreaking 4-3 extra-inning loss in Game 4, when they were three outs away from a sweep in the 12th before their bullpen faltered.
Pitching on four days' rest for only the fifth time in 34 starts this season, including the playoffs, Misiorowski had his longest outing since throwing 6 1/3 innings against the Chicago Cubs on Sept. 8. Leg cramps also forced him out of two outings earlier in the season.
"I don't even have words," Misiorowski said. "It's amazing, just watching my guys celebrate. And the city -- I know they're going crazy in Milwaukee. It's awesome."
Misiorowski, who broke the World Series velocity record with a 103.5 mph fastball on the first pitch of the Series last Friday, opened with 12 straight four-seam fastballs between 100.9 and 103 mph. He reached 103 mph twice among his 86 pitches, 58 for strikes.
He did not record a strikeout in the first three innings for the first time in his two-year career and finished with two, matching his career low.
The NL Cy Young Award favorite allowed one run over five innings to earn his first postseason victory as a starter in Milwaukee's 3-2 win in the opener. He finished the Series 2-0 with a 0.84 ERA.
JoJo Romero got two outs, Abner Uribe recorded two more and closer Trevor Megill pitched the final two innings, allowing an RBI double to Chandler Simpson with two outs in the ninth.
Megill retired Richie Palacios on a grounder to second to end the game, threw his arms in the air and was mobbed by teammates near the mound as Brewers fans celebrated in the stands.
"Milwaukee has waited 44 years, and Milwaukee, you have your world championship," principal owner Mark Attanasio said during the postgame celebration.
Pratt, who went 4 for 5 with a tiebreaking solo homer in the 12th inning of Game 4, gave Milwaukee a 1-0 lead with an RBI single against Rays ace Drew Rasmussen in the second.
Pratt singled for his sixth straight hit of the Series in the fifth and scored on David Hamilton's single off Kevin Kelly.
Contreras added an RBI double off Garrett Cleavinger in the sixth, and Pratt hit a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0.
Pitching on three days' rest, Rasmussen allowed one run and two hits in four innings. He had been given a 4-0 lead before taking the mound in Game 2 in Milwaukee but lasted only 3 2/3 innings as the Brewers rallied for a 5-4 victory.
The Rays put runners on second and third with two outs in the fourth, but Ben Williamson grounded out to third.
The teams combined for just four home runs in the Series, three by Milwaukee. The Brewers scored a major league-low 32.1 percent of their runs on homers during the regular season, while Tampa Bay ranked second-lowest at 34.4 percent, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Milwaukee led the majors with 103 regular-season wins and went 11-2 in the postseason, including seven comeback victories and a sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS.
Milwaukee's only previous major league championship was won by the Braves in 1957. The Braves moved to Atlanta for the 1966 season.
Murphy's team completed what Harvey Kuenn's star-studded 1982 Brewers could not. That club featured five Hall of Famers: Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Ted Simmons, Don Sutton and Rollie Fingers, who missed the postseason because of a forearm injury.
The Rays, an expansion team that debuted in 1998, fell to 0-3 in World Series appearances after also losing in 2008 and 2020.
"They're banged-up and hurting right now, but just grateful for the way they carried themselves all season long, winning a bunch of games," Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said. "It's as close-knit of a group as I've ever been around."
The championship also came amid looming labor uncertainty. MLB owners are pushing for a salary cap, arguing that small-market teams cannot regularly compete under the current system. A management lockout is expected to begin Dec. 2 and could threaten the 2027 season.
This was the first World Series since 1991 between teams in the bottom half of payrolls. The Brewers ranked 19th as of Aug. 31 and the Rays were 25th.
Tampa Bay was trying to become the first team to fall behind 3-0 in a World Series and force a Game 6. Of the 26 teams that lost the first three games, 21 were swept and Tampa Bay became the fifth to lose in Game 5.
