Brewers win it all: Misiorowski shuts down Rays 4-1 for first title in franchise history
Jacob Misiorowski threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings and William Contreras took Series MVP as Milwaukee closed out Tampa Bay in five games for its first championship in 57 years.
The Milwaukee Brewers are World Series champions for the first time in franchise history, closing out the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in Game 5 at Tropicana Field on Wednesday night — a title 57 years in the making, for a club whose last World Series appearance came in 1982.
Misiorowski slams the door
A night after a 12-inning gut punch, Jacob Misiorowski made sure there would be no Game 6. The 24-year-old right-hander threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing one hit with two walks and two strikeouts before leaving with a cramp in his right leg, and took his second win of the series, per Sports Illustrated. SI notes he is poised to become the first pitcher since Orel Hershiser in 1988 to start and win a clincher in a season he takes home the Cy Young — an award he has not yet won, but is widely expected to.
Milwaukee built the lead in pieces: Cooper Pratt's RBI single scored Brice Turang in the second, David Hamilton's ground ball brought Pratt home in the fifth, and a two-run sixth — Christian Yelich scoring after being hit by a pitch, William Contreras doubling and tagging up on Pratt's foul fly — made it 4-0. Tampa Bay's only answer came in the ninth, when Chandler Simpson doubled home Liam Hicks. Rays starter Drew Rasmussen, on three days' rest, gave four innings on 48 pitches.
Contreras takes MVP
William Contreras was named World Series MVP after hitting .381 with four RBIs, throwing out four baserunners and going 10-for-13 on ABS challenges. Pratt, the rookie, set a World Series record for consecutive hits by a rookie with six earlier in the series.
What it means
This was no fluke of a hot week. Pat Murphy's club went 11-2 in the postseason — beating the Padres in four in the division series and sweeping the Dodgers in the NLCS — and, as NBC Sports notes, delivered a championship to MLB's smallest media market. The trophy heads to Milwaukee at last.