Somebody's Wait Ends Here: Rays and Brewers Play a World Series for a First-Ever Title

Somebody's wait ends in the next ten days.

On Friday night at American Family Field, the Tampa Bay Rays and the Milwaukee Brewers open a World Series between the two best teams in baseball — 98 wins against 103 — and between two franchises that have never won one. Not "haven't won lately." Never. When the last out is recorded, whether it takes four games or the full seven through Halloween night, one of these clubs will hold a championship trophy for the first time in its history, and the sport will have its first guaranteed first-time champion since Kansas City and Philadelphia met in 1980, according to FOX Sports.

The paths they took to get here could hardly have been louder. Milwaukee did not sneak up on October; the Brewers owned the regular season wire to wire, then swept the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers out of the National League Championship Series. Tampa Bay took the American League's top seed, swept the New York Yankees, then stared down a 2-1 deficit against Cleveland and won three straight games to close out the pennant at Tropicana Field on Sunday night.

And standing in the middle of all of it is a pitcher who was wearing Milwaukee colors a year ago.

A first crown, guaranteed

The historical weight of this matchup is real. Milwaukee's only previous trip to the World Series came in 1982, when Harvey's Wallbangers — Robin Yount, Paul Molitor and Ted Simmons — lost a seven-game classic to the St. Louis Cardinals. The city loved that team so much it held a parade for them anyway, four days after they lost. The Brewers have not been back since: 44 years of near misses, capped until now by last October's humiliation, when the Dodgers swept them in the NLCS.

Tampa Bay's wait is shorter but no gentler. The Rays lost the 2008 World Series to Philadelphia in five games and the 2020 Series to the Dodgers in six, in the neutral-site bubble in Arlington. This is their third trip, and the first time the World Series will be played at Tropicana Field since 2008.

Baseball has quietly been clearing its never-won list in recent decades, and after this Series only three franchises — San Diego, Colorado and Seattle — will still be waiting for a first crown. One of these two clubs is about to leave that list behind forever.

How Milwaukee got here

Start with the record. The Brewers went 103-59, the best mark in baseball and the first 100-win season in franchise history, then went 7-1 through two postseason rounds without losing a game at home.

Their October signature is the sweep. After beating San Diego in four games in the Division Series — a round that featured Chourio's walk-off homer in Game 2 and a redemption run from reliever Aaron Ashby — Milwaukee ran into the Dodgers, the team that had swept them a year earlier on the way to a second straight championship. The Brewers trailed in every single game of the NLCS. They won all four anyway, 2-1, 7-4, 6-2 and 6-4, becoming the first club ever to complete a postseason sweep one year after being swept by the same opponent.

The clincher was the whole team in miniature: down 4-0 in the second inning at Dodger Stadium, they chipped away with walks, steals and ground-rule doubles, tied it on a bases-loaded walk, took the lead on Garrett Mitchell's two-strike, full-count homer in the sixth, and handed the last three innings to Ashby, who struck out Shohei Ohtani with the tying run at third and recorded the save. Chourio tracked down the final out in left-center to end it.

"They may have a bunch of Hall of Famers, but we've got a bunch of gamers — and the gamers won this week," manager Pat Murphy said afterward, in remarks reported by the Associated Press. Jake Bauers, the first baseman who kept winning the series' biggest at-bats, was named NLCS MVP.

How Tampa Bay got here

The Rays were supposed to be here. At 98-64 they were the American League's best team and its top seed, and they played like it in the Division Series, sweeping the Yankees in three straight, opening with a 1-0 shutout.

Then Cleveland nearly took the whole thing away. The Guardians won Game 1 of the ALCS, then took Game 3 behind Shane Bieber and a go-ahead homer from Pete Halpin, and led the series 2-1 with the Rays' season tilting. Tampa Bay answered with the best three-game stretch of its season: a 7-3 win in a rain-delayed Game 4, a 3-1 win in Cleveland behind seven one-run innings from Drew Rasmussen, and Sunday's 7-3 clincher at home, where Junior Caminero's first career postseason home run — a two-run shot off the left-field foul pole — broke it open in the seventh.

The closer, Bryan Baker, slammed the door on a 40,230-strong crowd. Yandy Díaz, who had guaranteed the Game 6 win after Game 5, delivered two more runs of insurance in the eighth.

The matchup that decides it: the arms — and the ghost in the middle

Every World Series has a hinge. This one's hinge has a name, a new delivery, and a grudge he is too gracious to name.

Freddy Peralta spent eight seasons in Milwaukee. He was the Brewers' ace in 2025. The club traded him in the offseason to the New York Mets, where nothing worked — a 4.99 ERA in Queens — and at the trade deadline the Mets moved him again, to Tampa Bay, for three prospects. The Rays rebuilt his delivery from the ground up: stretch only, a wider stance on the third-base side of the rubber, a quicker move to the plate. He has been close to unhittable since. Peralta was the AL Pitcher of the Month for September with a 0.79 ERA over his final six regular-season starts, and he carried it straight through October: six scoreless innings to win ALCS Game 2, two season-saving relief outs in Game 4, and the win in the Game 6 clincher. His postseason ERA for Tampa Bay is 1.08, the Rays have won all 10 of his last 10 appearances, and OptaSTATS notes his run of ten straight outings allowing one run or fewer with his team winning every time was last matched by Bob Gibson in 1968 and Walter Johnson in 1913.

He was named ALCS MVP. "He's kind of put us on our back," manager Kevin Cash said. Peralta, for his part, kept it gracious: "For some reason, it wasn't able to click. But when I got here, everything changed."

Now he faces the franchise that raised him. And he is not the only one. Tampa Bay's other ace, Rasmussen, was also developed by Milwaukee — the Brewers traded him to the Rays in 2021 in the deal that brought Willy Adames to Milwaukee. Rasmussen went 16-5 this season, led American League qualifiers with a 0.913 WHIP, and has a 1.29 ERA across three postseason starts. The two best arms on the AL champions were both built in the Brewers' system.

Milwaukee's counter is depth and the best bullpen left standing. Jacob Misiorowski opened the NLCS on the mound for the Brewers, and behind the rotation sits the relief corps that just suffocated the most expensive lineup in baseball — Ashby, JoJo Romero and friends turned a 4-0 Dodger Stadium deficit into a celebration. Neither club has officially announced its World Series probables yet, and both managers have earned the right to keep it that way a little longer: Tampa Bay closed its series Sunday night, Milwaukee has been resting since Thursday, and the rotations will be the first real news of the week.

The Brewers will also note, quietly, that they have already seen Tampa Bay this year: Milwaukee took two of three from the Rays in a series at American Family Field from March 30 to April 1 — the only meetings between the clubs in 2026, and ancient history by October standards.

The kids: Chourio vs. Caminero

October's other headline act is a pair of sluggers barely old enough to rent a car.

Jackson Chourio is 22. He hit .291 with 25 home runs, 75 RBIs and 23 stolen bases this season, becoming the first player in history with three 20-homer, 20-steal seasons before turning 23. His fifth career postseason home run set a Brewers record; his leaping catch in left-center recorded the final out of the pennant; David Ortiz was comparing his swing to a young Miguel Cabrera on the FOX set during the Division Series. Milwaukee signed him to a long-term extension before he had played a single major-league game. It looks like one of the great bets in franchise history.

Junior Caminero is 23, and he is the Rays' thunder: 42 home runs in the regular season, and his first postseason homer came at the perfect time, the foul-pole shot in Sunday's clincher that sent Tropicana Field into delirium. Afterward he posed at home plate in a nod to Randy Arozarena — the hero of Tampa Bay's last World Series run, who was sitting in the crowd.

Two of the youngest stars in the sport, on the biggest stage either has ever seen, playing for the first trophy either franchise has ever touched.

The schedule

Every game starts at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT on FOX. The format is 2-3-2: Milwaukee hosts Games 1, 2 and, if necessary, 6 and 7; Tampa Bay hosts the middle three.

Game 1: Friday, October 23 — Tampa Bay at Milwaukee

Game 2: Saturday, October 24 — Tampa Bay at Milwaukee

Game 3: Monday, October 26 — Milwaukee at Tampa Bay

Game 4: Tuesday, October 27 — Milwaukee at Tampa Bay

Game 5 (if necessary): Wednesday, October 28 — Milwaukee at Tampa Bay

Game 6 (if necessary): Friday, October 30 — Tampa Bay at Milwaukee

Game 7 (if necessary): Saturday, October 31 — Tampa Bay at Milwaukee

Friday's first pitch comes with a piece of poetry: Bud Selig, 92, the man who brought the Brewers to Milwaukee in 1970 and later ran the sport as commissioner, will throw out a ceremonial first pitch alongside Yount. Selig watched the clincher from home and told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel what he said to himself as Chourio squeezed the final out: "Oh, my God. We just won the pennant. This team is going to play in the World Series."

One more piece of context for the week ahead: this is, by the sport's economics, a battle of the little guys. CNN reported Milwaukee's roster cost about $143 million — 19th in the majors — and Tampa Bay's about $98 million, 25th. The Dodgers' empire has fallen, the Yankees are home, and the two best teams in baseball did it the other way: development, depth and nerve.

The wait for one of them is almost over. First pitch Friday, 5 p.m. Pacific.