Here we are. At last.
The best manager in Brewers franchise history, Pat Murphy, had the line ready when the Dodgers went down last week.
“They may have a bunch of Hall of Famers, but we’ve got a bunch of gamers,” the Brewers manager famously said after Milwaukee finished a four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. “And the gamers won this week.”
Now the gamers get the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays are not a mirror image of the Brewers, but there are obvious similarities, including a manager who says his team has a lot of gamers.
The Rays beat Cleveland 7-3 Monday night at Tropicana Field to win the American League pennant in six games. That sets up a World Series between two franchises that have never won one, the first such Fall Classic since 1980, when the Phillies beat the Royals. The national media will hate the matchup. I love it.
Game 1 is Friday, Oct. 23, at 7 p.m. CT at American Family Field, with Game 2 here Saturday. The series moves to St. Petersburg for Game 3 on Monday, Oct. 26, and Game 4 on Tuesday. If needed, Game 5 is Wednesday in St. Petersburg, and Games 6 and 7 come back home to Milwaukee on Friday, Oct. 30, and Halloween night. Every game is on FOX.
It will be the first World Series game at American Family Field and the first held in my hometown of Milwaukee in 44 years.
The season series, such as it is
The Brewers and Rays played three times this year. All three games came in the first week of the season, and all three were in Milwaukee.
March 30: Rays 3, Brewers 2. Garrett Cleavinger got the win, Trevor Megill took the loss and Kevin Kelly earned the save.
March 31: Brewers 6, Rays 2. Brandon Woodruff won his season debut with five innings. Brice Turang’s two-run single turned into a three-run play in the fifth when Cedric Mullins lost the ball applying a tag and the Brewers won a replay challenge. Shane McClanahan had not allowed a hit until that inning.
April 1: Brewers 8, Rays 2. Aaron Ashby got the win and Griffin Jax took the loss.
So the Brewers took two of three. That was a long time and a lot of roster moves ago. Woodruff and McClanahan are both hurt now. Rays catcher Liam Hicks did not make his Tampa Bay debut until Aug. 4. And Freddy Peralta was still a New York Met.
Home and road
Milwaukee went 55-26 at home, tying the Rays for the best home record in baseball. The Brewers won their last 12 home series and went 48-19 at home after a 7-7 start. On the road they were 48-33, a record topped only by the Dodgers. They are 4-0 at American Family Field this postseason.
The Rays matched that 55-26 home mark but went 43-38 away from Tropicana Field.
The Brewers have home-field advantage on the strength of their franchise-record 103 wins, which led the majors. That means four of the seven possible games would be played in Milwaukee.
Trends and the road to the Series
The Brewers went 18-6 in September and won the NL Central by 14 games, the largest margin of any division winner this year. They took down San Diego in four games in the Division Series, then swept the two-time defending champion Dodgers.
They have also made a habit of falling behind and winning anyway. Milwaukee became the first team to open a postseason with six comeback wins in its first eight games.
And the power showed up. A team that tied for second-to-last in the majors in home runs out-homered the Dodgers 7-1 in the NLCS. For the long version of how this club got to 103, here is Dairyland Sentinel’s month-by-month recap of the Brewers’ record season.
The Rays went 16-9 in September. They swept the Yankees and fell behind Cleveland 2-1 in the ALCS before winning three straight. They win with pitching and defense. Through their first eight postseason games, they had hit five home runs. This formula should sound familiar to Brewers fans.
One more number for the late innings: Tampa Bay is 92-0 this year, counting the postseason, when leading after eight.
The Rays clinched Monday night. The Brewers will have been off eight days by the time Game 1 starts.
Infield
Catcher: William Contreras hit .270 with 18 homers and 94 RBIs. His 89 RBIs as a catcher led the majors and set a franchise record, and his 1,085 2/3 innings behind the plate also led the majors. He is hitting .367 this postseason. Hicks drove in 82 runs and was one of four qualified hitters with more walks (56) than strikeouts (55). Edge: Brewers.
First base: Jake Bauers had the year of his life, hitting .266 with a team-high 26 homers, 86 RBIs and a .389 on-base percentage. He was NLCS MVP after driving in six runs against the Dodgers. He also broke into the big leagues with the Rays in 2018. Jonathan Aranda hit .274 with 22 homers and 92 RBIs. Edge: Brewers.
Second base: Brice Turang hit .268 with 21 homers and 100 RBIs, the most by any second baseman in the majors and a franchise record for the position. He is a Gold Glove finalist. Richie Palacios set career highs with 10 homers and 57 RBIs, then delivered a two-run double in the pennant clincher. Edge: Brewers.
Shortstop: Rookie Cooper Pratt hit .281 in 74 games and became the first rookie in franchise history with three hits in a postseason game. Taylor Walls hit .222, but his 21 defensive runs saved led all big-league shortstops, and he is a Gold Glove finalist. Edge: Rays, on the consistency of the defense.
Third base: Junior Caminero played all 162 games and hit .276 with 42 homers and 101 RBIs. His two-run shot off the left-field foul pole Monday was the swing that changed Game 6. David Hamilton hit .245 and led the Brewers with 30 steals. Edge: The stats say Rays, and it isn’t close. I think Tampa Bay has an edge here but it’s more narrow than the numbers would suggest.
Designated hitter: Yandy Diaz led the American League with 180 hits and batted .293. He hit .333 with four doubles and two homers in the ALCS. Christian Yelich, named the first team captain in franchise history in September, hit .235 in the regular season. Edge: Rays.
Asked about the Brewers after Game 6, Diaz did not hedge. “It’s going to be a great series,” he said, “but we’re winning.”
Infield overall: Brewers, with catcher, first base and second base. Stats indicate Rays have the better left side and the better DH.
Outfield
Jackson Chourio hit a career-high .291 with 25 homers and 23 steals, and he is a Gold Glove finalist in left. He is already the franchise’s career postseason leader in homers and RBIs. Garrett Mitchell, who had played only 141 big-league games from 2022 through 2025 because of injuries, played 145 this year. He also hit the go-ahead homer in the pennant clincher. Sal Frelick hit only .230 in the regular season, but is the consummate gamer Murphy speaks of and rookie Luis Lara, a two-time MLB Play of the Week winner, gives Murphy range, an above average glove in right and a knack for timely hitting.
Tampa Bay’s Chandler Simpson hit .306, second in the AL, and led the league with 46 steals. He is a Gold Glove finalist in left, too. Jonny DeLuca’s 13 outs above average tied for third among all big-league outfielders, and Victor Mesa Jr. hit 14 homers in 79 games as a rookie.
Edge: Brewers, narrowly. Chourio is the best outfielder on either side.
Starting rotation
Jacob Misiorowski went 16-5 and led the majors in ERA (1.80), strikeouts (252), WHIP (0.80) and opponents’ average (.157). October has been bumpier. His first pitch of the Division Series was a record 104.8 mph, and since then the Padres and Dodgers have fouled him off and run up his pitch counts. Murphy has pointed out that Misiorowski’s workload is far beyond anything he has carried before. He also said after NLCS Game 1 that “whenever he got in a jam, he got better.” By Friday, Misiorowski will have had 11 days off.
Logan Henderson went 11-3 with a 2.47 ERA in 18 starts. After that, Murphy has mixed and matched. Shane Drohan started the NLCS clincher, and Dustin May was on the mound by the second inning. Robert Gasser has been the late season rising star.
The Rays are expected to start Drew Rasmussen in Game 1 against the team that drafted him and traded him to Tampa Bay for Willy Adames. MLB.com has him 11-0 with a 1.73 ERA in 15 starts since the All-Star break. He went 16-5 with a 2.67 ERA in the regular season and is 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA in three postseason starts.
Then comes Freddy.
Peralta spent eight seasons in Milwaukee, went 70-42 with a 3.59 ERA and 1,153 strikeouts, and started Game 1 of the Brewers’ first postseason series in both 2024 and 2025. The Brewers traded him to the Mets in January, and the Mets sent him to the Rays on Aug. 2.
He went 5-2 with a 3.25 ERA in 10 Rays starts and was the AL Pitcher of the Month for September. Then he won ALCS MVP, throwing six shutout innings in Game 2 and 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball in Game 6. MLB.com projects him for Game 2.
The Brewers did see him once this summer. On July 29, pitching for the Mets at American Family Field, Peralta gave up seven runs in 5 1/3 innings and took an 8-3 loss. October is a different month.
Behind those two, Nick Martinez went 15-6 with a 3.10 ERA and made the All-Star team at 35. Griffin Jax had a 3.53 ERA. Through eight postseason games, Rays starters led all postseason teams with a 2.01 ERA.
Edge: Rays. Misiorowski is the best pitcher in this series, but Tampa Bay has more starters to trust to go deeper into games.
Bullpen
This is where Milwaukee lives. Brewers relievers are 7-1 with a 1.33 ERA this postseason, allowing six earned runs in 40 2/3 innings. In the regular season they led the majors with 48 wins and the NL with a 3.40 ERA. Megill, Ashby and DL Hall have combined for 23 1/3 scoreless innings this October.
Megill saved 30 games for a second straight season. Ashby went 13-3 and struck out 116 in 89 1/3 innings. Abner Uribe posted a 0.84 ERA over his final 43 regular-season appearances. In the pennant clincher, Ashby got the final nine outs.
The Rays have Bryan Baker, who tied for the major-league lead with 41 saves and posted a 1.44 ERA. He has finished every Rays postseason win without allowing a run in seven innings. Cam Booser is the top lefty setup man, with Tyler Wells and Kelly getting the big right-handed outs. Kelly tied for the major-league lead with 33 holds.
Edge: Brewers. Tampa Bay’s back end is as good as anybody’s. Milwaukee’s bullpen is deeper, perhaps the deepest in MLB in a generation.
Bench
Andrew Vaughn hit .306 with a .390 on-base percentage and was activated from the injured list Oct. 2. Joey Ortiz hit .333 over his last 61 regular-season games, and Gary Sanchez hit 12 homers in 87 games. In fact, Ortiz may start more this series and Hamilton may return to his bench/utility role.
The Rays can turn to Mullins, who hit 15 homers and stole 21 bases, and to Jorge Mateo, whose sprint speed ranked fifth in the majors. Ryan Vilade homered in his first postseason game.
Edge: Brewers.
Manager and coaching staff
The much beloved Murphy is 293-193 in three seasons, the best record in baseball during his tenure. He won NL Manager of the Year in 2024 and 2025 and signed a multiyear extension in February. Before taking over, he spent eight seasons as the Brewers’ bench coach.
Kevin Cash is in his 12th season, the longest-tenured manager with his current club in the majors. He entered this year with 896 wins, the most in Rays history, and won AL Manager of the Year in 2020 and 2021.
Chris Hook is in his eighth season as Milwaukee’s pitching coach, with Charlie Greene running the bullpen and Jason Lane as offense and strategy coordinator. One of the hitting coaches is Daniel Vogelbach, whose pinch-hit walk-off grand slam beat the Cardinals on Sept. 5, 2021. On the other side, Kyle Snyder is in his ninth season as Rays pitching coach, Rodney Linares is the bench coach and Chad Mottola is the hitting coach.
Brewers general manager and president of baseball operations Matt Arnold spent nine seasons in the Rays’ front office before coming to Milwaukee.
Edge: Even. This may be the one that draws the most heat from my fellow Brewers fans. While I’m a huge believer in Murphy, both men have two Manager of the Year awards, and neither has won a World Series as a manager.
Injuries
Woodruff is the name to watch. He has been on the 60-day injured list with a right shoulder capsule injury since July and is hoping to return as a reliever for the World Series. He threw 31 pitches off a mound at Dodger Stadium between NLCS Games 2 and 3. Do they burn a roster slot on a guy who maybe could make two very short relief appearances but hasn’t been in a game for months?
“I’m not really holding back,” Woodruff said of his preparation.
Quinn Priester (thoracic outlet surgery), Angel Zerpa (Tommy John surgery) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Tommy John surgery) are out for the year.
For Tampa Bay, McClanahan has been ruled out for the postseason. He left a Sept. 3 start with left forearm tightness. Ryan Pepiot, Edwin Uceta, Gavin Lux, Jonathan Heasley and Jacob Melton are on the 60-day injured list.
Closing context
There is not much World Series experience on either side. Only three players on these two teams have appeared in a World Series game: Diaz, Brewers right-hander Dustin May and Rays lefty Steven Matz.
Statistics are a wonderful obsession for many baseball fans. But these games are not computer simulations. No AI bot had Milwaukee out-homering LA last week, for example. But there are trends and data points that suggest this series could be tougher than many of my fellow Brewers fans can contemplate. Then there’s that late-inning reality check: Tampa Bay is 92-0 this year when leading after eight. That’s absurd. Yet, Murphy’s gamers aren’t spooked by deficits. They’ve already pulled off six comeback wins in eight postseason games. So a clash of strengths is about to occur.
If Milwaukee can’t get to Tampa’s starters before Kevin Cash hands the ball over to Kevin Kelly and Bryan Baker, the Rays’ rotation edge is going to make this a painful series. It’s been more than four decades. The franchise understands patience. So here’s hoping the players show it at the plate and the Brewers continue to methodically grind out at-bats, run up pitch counts early, and turn Games 1 and 2 into a battle of the bullpens. If that happens, the grit that delivered a 55-26 home record at American Family Field will be what carries them to glory.
The last time the Brewers played in a World Series, I was a freshman at Wauwatosa East High School. Our 40th reunion is this week for crying out loud. Brewers fans have been feeling snakebit since Harvey’s Wallbangers lost Games 6 and 7 at Busch Stadium. Forty-four years later, Murphy’s Gamers get their turn, this time with home-field advantage.
First pitch is 7 p.m. Friday.
Play ball!
A note on the numbers: Regular-season statistics are final and come from Baseball-Reference (Brewers, Rays) and each club’s official game notes (Brewers, Rays). Postseason figures come from those game notes and MLB.com, World Series rosters have not been set, so this breakdown works from each club’s LCS roster. Updates will be made when rosters are finalized.
Previously
