Hey you!
Sitting there at your watch party, observing Nick Martinez induce yet another weak fly ball to Chandler Simpson while the Rays have jumped to a 2-0 lead in Game One of the World Series against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Wouldn’t you like some random knowledge about the Rays and Brewers to throw out the revelers among your group to showcase how intelligent and fun you are. Imagine how impressed everyone will be when you shout out that the first trade between the Rays and Brewers was on March 24th,
2003 when Tampa Bay sent Javier Valentin to Milwaukee for outfielder Jason Conti. If you want to depress those around you, you could bring up that after Conti’s player career, he became a professional chef and started a restaurant where he tragically suffered a stroke and struck his head, dying from the injury a week later in 2025.
The Rays and Brewers have matched up for 17 transactions over the years with names like Aaron Civale, Willy Adames, Drew Rasmussen, Jesus Aguilar, Brad Miller, Ji-Man Choi, Mike Brosseau, Seth McClung,and Grant Balfour among the players dealt.
As for on-field matches, the Rays are 13-15 all-time against the Milwaukee Brewers. The first game between the two teams was held on June 13th, 2005 with Tampa Bay edging out Milwaukee, 5-3. Doug Waechter took the mound for Tampa Bay and allowed 3 runs over 8 innings of work, outdueling Chris Capuano. A notable footnote about that game was it featured the MLB debut of a Brewers top prospect, Prince Fielder; Fielder collected his first big league hit two days later.
The Brewers swept the Rays in the season series back in 2022, but the two sides have split all the games since then with each team winning six games against the other since the start of the 2023 season.
Tampa Bay’s top offensive player all-time against Milwaukee with at least 20 PA is current Rays speedster Chandler Simpson. The 25-year old has played six games against Milwaukee thus far in his career and is hitting .350/.409/.550 over 22 PA.
The best single-game team offensive performance against Milwaukee came during that first game mentioned above when the team hit .370/.371/.686. They notched 13 hits on the day, including five doubles and two homeruns (courtesy of Jonny Gomes and Travis Lee), but were only able to scratch across 5 runs.
The best individual offensive game in team history against the Brewers was provided by outfielder Josh Lowe. On May 21st, 2023, Josh Lowe went 3-4 with a game tying 3-run homerun and a stolen base, gving him a RE24 of 3.33, the highest of any player for the Rays against the Brewers in franchise history.
On the mound, the best start in team history against the Brewers was provided by the stalwart Alex Cobb back on July 29th, 2014. That summer night featured a pitching duel between Cobb and former Ray Matt Garza. Both pitchers had great games, but it was Cobb who prevailed. Overall, Cobb allowed 1 run on 3 hits, while striking out 12 . The game was tied at 1 entering the bottom of the 8th, the Rays scored four runs, sending all nine hitters in the lineup to the plate. Grant Balfour locked things down in the top of the 9th to record the save.
Over the course of MLB history, there have been 86 players to have played for both the Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers. The best player in Rays history to have played for Milwaukee would be Willy Adames (7.5 bWAR) while the best player in Brewers history to play for the Rays would be Carlos Gomez (19.0 bWAR). There are plenty of notable players though to have donned the uniforms, including Greg Vaughn, Rickie Weeks, Jake Bauers, Julio Franco, Nelson Cruz, and Rays postseason hero Brett Phillips.
What history will be added the legacy of the Brewers-Rays rivalry this October?
