After preventing the sweep on Tuesday, the Rays faced a massive challenge in surviving another game. The 12-inning affair burned out both teams’ bullpens making their starting pitcher selections crucial to making it through Game 5, and the Brewers were running out their ace in Jacob Misiorowski. Opposite him would be Tampa’s ace in Drew Rasmussen, but he was on a day shorter rest after starting Game 2 as opposed to Misiorowski opening up the Fall Classic in Game 1. The leash was noticeably shorter on the Rays’
side, and as it turned out things went south quickly once they dug into their bullpen.
World Series Game 5
Milwaukee Brewers 4, Tampa Bay Rays 1
(Brewers win series 4-1)
Milwaukee went down 1-2-3 against Rasmussen to start the game, but had better luck in the second inning. Brice Turang hit a one-out double and Sal Frelick was hit by a pitch to put runners on for Cooper Pratt, who singled right up the middle to plate Turang. Pratt ended up gifted the Rays an out trying to take second base on the relay throw, and the Brewers couldn’t make it a crooked number because of that, but they still struck first. As it turned out, it would take a while for Tampa to respond.
The Miz worked around two-out baserunners in the first and third inning to coast into the fourth, where he faced a jam after hitting Liam Hicks. Chandler Simpson singled and a fielding error on Frelick moved both runners into scoring position with two outs, but Misiorowski got Ben Williamson to ground out to strand them both. By that point, Kevin Cash had tested his ace’s arm enough and decided to go to his bullpen to start the fifth inning. He brought in Kevin Kelly, who got the first out before a barrage of three straight singles scored a second run. The wheels were starting to fall off of the AL Champions, and the sixth only brought more problems.
Garrett Cleavinger was summoned to get the final out of the fifth and stayed out to start the sixth. He hit Christian Yelich to put the leadoff man aboard, and William Contreras made him pay with a loud double that bounced off the left field wall bringing in Yelich. Turang singled to put runners on the corners, and Cash made another move to the ‘pen calling on Tyler Wells, but the fires were too tough to put out. Pratt lifted a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0, and Milwaukee was well on their way to the title.
Misiorowski continued cruising throughout this, and though he wasn’t racking up strikeouts the Rays couldn’t do anything with what he was offering. At 86 pitches, the Miz got the second out of the sixth inning but felt something funny on his delivery, prompting the training staff to come out. It turned out he was cramping, and though he’d try to shake it off they ultimately pulled him after his warmup pitch looked off. JoJo Romero entered and finished the inning, putting them nine outs away from the Commissioner’s Trophy. The final line on Misiorowski was 5.2 innings, two hits, one walk and two strikeouts with no runs allowed — far from what most would’ve predicted, but had he not cramped up he probably could’ve kept pitching into the seventh with excellent results. The likely NL Cy Young Award winner didn’t have the flashiest postseason performance, but he saved his best for the finale.
The march to closing the game out continued with Romero to start the seventh, and though Contreras allowed a man to reach on an error Abner Uribe took the baton and doused the embers of a rally. Then it was time for Trevor Megill to enter for the final six outs, and he got through the eighth with ease. The ninth proved a little more stressful, as Tampa got doubles from Hicks and Simpson to finally plate a run, but it was too little too late. Richie Palacios grounded one to second, Turang tossed it over to Jake Bauers in time at first, and the celebration was on. The Brewers are your 2026 World Series champions, and the season is at an end. Contreras was named World Series MVP for his marvelous performance collecting eight hits with four RBI throughout the five games.
Now that the offseason is in full effect for everyone, the looming specter of the CBA negotiations and a lockout are moving from the horizon to the forefront. It’ll likely be a long time until we can feasibly talk about moves being made, rosters being finalized, and the gathering of players towards Florida and Arizona once more. Strap in folks, this winter will be a long one.
