ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- They were deemed too young and unheralded, dismissed as punchless and inexpensive, defined more by what they lacked than what they possessed. They won 103 regular-season games, the most in Major League Baseball for a second straight year, and yet when October arrived, the Milwaukee Brewers were generally portrayed as underdogs, a moniker to which they've grown accustomed.
Now, for the first time, they warrant a different label: champions.
The Brewers dispatched the Tampa Bay Rays and capped a dominant run through the postseason with a 4-1 victory at Tropicana Field in Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday night, cementing the first title in the franchise's 57-year history in front of tens of thousands of fans who made the 1,300-mile trek from Milwaukee.
As midnight neared, Brewers owner Mark Attanasio stood on a makeshift stage in center field, looked out at an entire lower bowl stuffed with fans donning navy blue and yellow, and felt as if he were hoisting the trophy from home.
"It was unbelievable," Attanasio said.
"You say they've been waiting so long, that's one thing -- but it's more about their undying commitment to this team," Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. "It started growing and growing throughout the year, grew last year, and then you see what it means to them. It's not just the city of Milwaukee. It's the whole state of Wisconsin. I hope they're proud. I hope they're proud of these guys. I hope they realize how special this group is."
A Brewers team that carried baseball's 19th-highest payroll, ranked 28th in home runs and was widely viewed as the type of club that could not thrive this time of year went 11-2 in the playoffs, surviving a tension-filled National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres before overwhelming the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Championship Series and racing past the similarly unsung Rays in the final round.
The clincher was set up, fittingly, by Jacob Misiorowski hurling triple-digit fastballs and suffocating Rays hitters through five scoreless innings, during which he recorded two strikeouts but also allowed just four baserunners. Misiorowski exited because of a cramp in his right calf with two outs in the sixth inning, marking the first time he had pitched beyond the fifth in these playoffs -- but by then, the damage had been done.
Cooper Pratt, the rookie shortstop who hit what could have been the championship-winning homer in the 12th inning of Game 4, drove in the first run in the top of the second with a line-drive single off Rays ace Drew Rasmussen, who was starting on three days' rest. Pratt notched another single in the fifth, his sixth hit in as many at-bats, then came around to score on another by David Hamilton. The Brewers got two more runs off the Rays' bullpen in the sixth on William Contreras' double and Pratt's sacrifice fly, and the bullpen took it from there.
It went JoJo Romero to Abner Uribe to, for the last two innings, Trevor Megill. The Rays got a run on Chandler Simpson's double with two outs, but then Megill threw a 99.1 mph fastball inside to jam Richie Palacios, producing the slow roller to second baseman Brice Turang that went for the final out, igniting a raucous celebration.
Former Brewers star Ryan Braun wore a black T-shirt depicting Bob Uecker, the beloved longtime broadcaster. Robin Yount, the star of the last Brewers team that went to the World Series in 1982, hugged Christian Yelich. Sal Frelick, the diminutive right fielder who embodies so much of what makes this team unique, held up a copy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that read, "WORLD CHAMPS!"
When the Brewers won the pennant, they sprayed champagne bottles with the names of former players who appeared in postseason games for the franchise. When they won it all, those bottles carried the names of family members and mentors. Pratt held a can of Fanta in each hand, continuing what has become a tradition.
"Man, this is awesome," he said. "How fun is this?"
Pratt became the first player since David Ortiz in 2013 to record a hit in six straight World Series at-bats and the second rookie with seven RBIs in the final round.
He was far from the only one to make history.
Aaron Ashby pitched 18 consecutive scoreless innings, breaking the record for a reliever in a single postseason. Jackson Chourio recorded 10 hits in the first four World Series games, tying a mark set by Babe Ruth. And Contreras did it all while on his way to winning the MVP trophy. He put up an .863 OPS, threw out three would-be base stealers, went 10-for-13 in ABS challenges -- after being one of the worst at reviewing pitches during the regular season -- and led a pitching staff that held the Rays to a .182 batting average.
"I don't want to offend any of the other catchers in the league; the last thing I want to do is offend any of them," Contreras said. "But sitting up here today, champion of the world, I feel like I'm the best catcher in the league."
Contreras is the linchpin, Chourio is the star, Turang is the stalwart and Yelich is the captain, but the Brewers' entire offense proved to be relentless throughout this postseason, continually working counts, punishing mistakes and eviscerating deficits. Misiorowski is the ace, a shoo-in for the NL Cy Young Award, and Logan Henderson has clearly developed into one. But Robert Gasser put up an 0.60 ERA in three postseason starts behind them, and a devastating group of relievers -- led by Megill, Uribe and, most notably, Ashby -- was unhittable when it mattered most.
It was all held together by Murphy, the baseball journeyman with a football coach's sensibilities, a man who somehow kept things loose while demanding perfection. It was built by Matt Arnold, the leader of a front office group that has long been considered among the industry's best at procuring talent, developing players and contending on a tight budget.
"Just the trust in each other and not wanting to ever give up on each other," Turang said when asked what makes this group special. "Just incredible. I mean you can talk about it all you want, but it doesn't even begin to describe what it means. We're so much better than that."
The Brewers reached the playoffs seven times in the past eight years but consistently fell short. They went all the way to the NLCS in 2018 and 2025 but lost to the Dodgers both times, first in seven games and later in four. Along the way, their baseball operations department was often chastised for trading away homegrown stars such as Josh Hader, Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta as they approached free agency, and then again for not doing what it took to land Tarik Skubal before this year's trade deadline.
The Brewers never strayed from their process. They saw it as their only chance to contend in an industry of bigger spenders and maintained hope that it would someday pay off with the ultimate prize. To Murphy, signs began to materialize in late September, when he surveyed a team clicking on all cylinders and realized it had finished with baseball's best record by a wide margin. He noticed his players coming together and holding themselves accountable like never before.
Then they went into an NLDS against a dangerous Padres team, won in the most dramatic ways possible -- a Ty France flyball clanking off a roof cable, an improbable walk-off against Mason Miller, a Manny Machado drive somehow staying in play -- and many began to believe something special might be afoot. The Brewers trailed in every NLCS game against the Dodgers, but it didn't matter. They fell behind by four runs in the first inning of their second World Series game, and it seemed to only make them better.
Said Murphy: "We were relentless."
"A lot of heart, man," Arnold added. "Everything that we do in this era is something that we measure, but you can't measure the heart of this team."