This Milwaukee Brewers team has been defined all season, and especially all postseason, by its resilience. On Tuesday, the Brewers had a chance to sweep the Rays and win their first ever championship. It didn’t go to plan. Doubts crept in amongst fans. Horrible “what-ifs.”
Lucky for us, we don’t play the games. As they have all postseason, the Brewers immediately bounced back from their Game 4 setback. With their ace on the hill, the Brewer pitching staff shut utterly shut down the Rays’ offense, even if Jacob Misiorowski was doing it differently than he did for most of the season. A rookie on a hot streak, a night after just missing out on creating the most legendary moment in the history of the franchise, picked up a couple more hits and a couple more RBI and set a major-league record in the process. And the on-field leader, Wild Bill, picked up a big hit and a fancy new piece of hardware.
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Yes. The Brewers did it. They won the World Series.
In one of the big storylines of the game, Tampa Bay went with their ace, Drew Rasmussen, on just three days rest. He looked good in the first inning, as he struck out Jackson Chourio and Jake Bauers and got Christian Yelich to ground out. In the bottom of the inning, Jacob Misiorowski—pitching to contact tonight, as we have seen through this postseason—got the first two Rays on fly outs before Junior Caminero, after the first of several pauses to work on the mound tonight, extended the inning with a single. Liam Hicks, though, hit a soft little pop fly to Brice Turang at second base, and both pitchers had scoreless first innings.
In the second, Turang scorched a line drive past shortstop Taylor Walls and into the gap for a one-out double. Sal Frelick followed with his second hit-by-pitch of the World Series, which brought up the world’s hottest hitter, Cooper Pratt. Pratt, who got hits in his last four plate appearances on Tuesday, went after the first pitch he saw on Wednesday and lined a single into center, scoring Turang from second. The Rays lucked into the second out when Pratt was thrown out on the bases—pretty excusable, all things considered, as he was aggressively trying to take second on a throw to third, but Caminero made a smart play to get him caught in a rundown. But with that out, the Brewers had Frelick at third with two out instead of runners on the corners and one out, and Garrett Mitchell struck out to end the inning. The Brewers, though, had an early lead for their ace.
Misirowoski picked up a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the second with three more balls in the air. In the bottom of the inning, Rasmussen matched that when David Hamilton failed to reach first on a bunt-for-hit attempt, Chourio struck out, and Bauers popped out. In the bottom of the third, after a defensive gem from Jake Bauers robbed Ryan Vilade of a hit, Misiorowski walked Yandy Díaz with two out, though Díaz tweaked his hamstring on a swing and miss during the at-bat and was clearly uncomfortable; he was checked on by the trainer before the end of the at-bat and again at first a couple pitches later. Díaz was able to stay in the game, and didn’t have to test his leg when Jonathan Aranda flew out to right.
The Brewers again went down in order against Rasmussen in the fourth, but with a near-miss: Turang, with two out, blasted a ball 412 feet and 105 mph but hit it to straightaway center, where it was caught on the warning track. Caminero led off the bottom of the inning with a warning-track shot of his own, this one down the line to right, but Frelick made the catch. The Rays then put some pressure on Misiorowski for the first time in the game: Hicks was hit by a pitch, and after a Jonny DeLuca strikeout, Chandler Simpson singled to right and advanced to second when Frelick bobbled the ball. That put runners on second and third with two out, but Misiorowski got Ben Williamson to ground out to third—a play on which Bauers made his second really good defensive play of the night by bailing out Hamilton on a high throw.
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Rasmussen, whose workload tonight was always going to be limited given that he was pitching three days after throwing 89 pitches on Saturday, was done after four—he left in position for a loss, but pitched pretty well all things considered. Kevin Kelly was the first man out of the bullpen, and the Brewer offense grew into the game as soon as Rasmussen was out. With one out in the top of the fifth, Pratt picked up another single, his sixth straight hit going back to yesterday’s game, setting a record for a rookie in the World Series. Mitchell followed that by slicing another single into left, putting runners on the corners with one out. That brought up Hamilton, and with the Rays defense drawn in, he knocked a single past Williamson and into right field for a run-scoring single.
Kelly managed to strike out Chourio, and he was then replaced by Garrett Cleavinger, who struck out Bauers to strand Mitchell and Hamilton, but the Brewer lead was now 2-0. Misiorowski had an easy bottom of the fifth, and then the Brewers struck again in the top of the sixth. Yelich got things started by taking a Cleavinger sinker to the side, and the Rays chose to leave Cleavinger in the precarious position of facing the right-handed William Contreras. They should not have let him do that. Contreras hit one deep into the left-field corner that bounced in front of the wall; Yelich scored from first, and Contreras had a double.
Cleavinger then had a matchup advantage against Turang, but Turang won that battle too and singled on a fly ball down the left-field line. Contreras had to hold at third, as it wasn’t immediately clear that Simpson would be able to make the catch. Cleavinger was pulled in favor of Tyler Wells, who was able to strike out Frelick for the first out, though Turang stole second base during the at-bat. Pratt, the human flamethrower, was up next, and while he didn’t make it seven straight at-bats with a hit, he did hit a sacrifice fly into foul territory down the right-field line, on which Contreras scored from third. After a Mitchell walk, the Rays moved to Steven Matz, who got Hamilton to fly out to end the inning. But the Brewers now had a cautiously comfortable four-run lead.
Misiorowski was also cruising, as he approached 80 pitches in the bottom of the sixth; aside from the one stressful inning in the fourth, he’d been in control all night despite lacking strikeout stuff. That continued for two outs in the sixth as Aranda grounded out and, for the second time in the game, Caminero flew out to Frelick on the warning track. During Hicks’ at-bat, though, an old foe conquered Misiorowski: leg cramps. After the first pitch to Hicks, Misiorowski pulled up, and after a conversation on the mound, he was removed in favor of JoJo Romero, who finished off Hicks for the third out.
It wasn’t how Misiorowski would’ve liked his night to end and he surely had eyes on the seventh inning, but Misiorowski was able to be extremely effective tonight despite just one strikeout for the guy who led the majors in strikeouts and K/9 this season. He allowed just two hits and walked only one batter, and completed 5 2/3 huge scoreless innings for a team whose bullpen was in somewhat rough shape after Tuesday night’s 12-inning game.
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Chourio led off the seventh with a sharp single to center off of Matz, but Bauershit into a tough-luck double play, when a 99 mph sharp ground ball down the line was snagged by Aranda, who stepped on first and then threw to second, where Chourio was tagged. Yelich flew out to center for the third out.
Romero continued in the bottom of the seventh and struck out DeLuca looking. He should’ve retired Simpson, too, but bad throws continued to plague the Brewers this postseason: Simpson hit a dribbler in front of the plate, but Contreras, when throwing to first, airmailed it. Simpson reached second, and with that, Romero was removed in favor of Abner Uribe. On Uribe’s first pitch, pinch-hitter Richie Palacios hit a harmless ground ball to first. Simpson moved to third, but there were two outs. Another pinch-hitter, Victor Mesa Jr., came to the plate in place of Vilade. Uribe, being careful with Mesa Jr., fell behind 3-0. He worked it back full, and Mesa Jr., hit three two-strike foul balls, but on the ninth pitch of the at-bat, Mesa Jr. grounded out. The error did not come back to bite the Brewers in the seventh.
Rays closer Bryan Baker was in for the top of the eighth, a night after throwing two innings. Contreras scalded the second pitch of the inning but had nothing to show for it except a 108.5 mph groundout. He retired Turang and Frelick with less trouble, and the lead remained 4-0 going to the bottom of the eighth.
The Brewer pitcher in the bottom of the eighth was Trevor Megill. The leadoff hitter Walls made surprisingly good contact on a 2-1 fastball right down the middle and sliced it down the left field line, but Chourio made a great play on which he had to go down to a slide. A pitch later, Díaz hit another ball to the warning track in right—he clearly thought he got a little more of it than he did—and Frelick had it for the second out. After Aranda struck out on a check swing, the inning was over, and the Brewers were three outs away.
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Ian Seymour pitched the top of the ninth for the Rays, and for the first time in a long time, Pratt made a routine out. Seymour struck out Mitchell and Hamilton, and the Brewers would have a four-run lead to work with in the bottom of the ninth.
Megill, back out for his second inning of work, got off to a great start by striking out Caminero looking. It looked like he’d have an easy second out, too, when Hicks hit a weak ground ball toward Bauers at first. But the ball hit the base and caromed way off down the right-field line. Hicks ended up at second. Megill got another strikeout of DeLuca, which brought Simpson to the plate. As he has all series, Simpson fought for the Rays, and lined a double into right that put the Rays on the board. But the Rays’ rally didn’t go any further: Palacios hit a weak grounder to Turang at second, he calmly threw over to Bauers at first, and the Brewers won the World Series.
I repeat, the Brewers won the World Series.
This was as comfortable a win as a win like this one is going to feel. The Brewers got out to an early lead and built on it in the middle innings, and their pitching staff—first Misiorowski, followed by Romero, Uribe, and Megill—had the Rays offense on utter lockdown. Before the fluke Hicks double in the ninth, the Rays had no runs on just two hits, and Milwaukee pitchers had walked only one batter.
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On the offensive side, Pratt’s World Series heater extended long enough to get a couple more hits and knock in a couple more runs. Turang picked up a big double and scored a big run. Contreras had a big RBI double. In the end, it was Contreras who hoisted the Willie Mays World Series MVP trophy, a fitting end for the guy who not only finished the series with eight hits in 23 at-bats (.381) and four RBI but led a dominant pitching staff through five games. For the entire postseason, Contreras hit .373/.448/.588 in 13 games with three homers and nine RBI.
The award belonged to Contreras, but it could easily have gone to Chourio, Pratt, or even Aaron Ashby. Chourio finished the series with 11 hits in 24 at-bats (.458), two doubles, and two RBI. Pratt, by going 6-for-8 over the last two games, finished 8-for-19 (.421) with a homer, two doubles, and seven RBI. Ashby didn’t pitch in the clincher, but he allowed just one hit and struck out nine in 5 2/3 innings across three World Series appearances, getting a save in Game 2.
For Brewers fans, this was a magical ending to a fantastic season. For those fans who’ve been around since the beginning in 1970, for those who were around to see the last World Series winner in Milwaukee in 1957. For those, like me, who grew up with the dreadful teams of the late 1990s and the early 2000s and didn’t even consider winning the World Series a possibility. For those younger fans who have only known success, but who hadn’t gotten to the top of the mountain. For all Brewers fans! We won the World Series!
Plenty more to come. I don’t think you need me to tell you to soak this one in.
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