The Milwaukee Brewers have won the World Series for the first time in the franchise's 57-year history.

They beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in game five in Florida on Wednesday to clinch a 4-1 win in the best-of-seven Fall Classic.

The Brewers, whose only previous appearance in the World Series came in 1982, are based in Major League Baseball's smallest market and this year had the 19th highest payroll of its 30 teams.

But for the second straight year, the Brewers finished the regular season with MLB's best record and they then proved their class with a dominant run in the play-offs.

They avenged last season's loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series by sweeping the two-time defending champions.

That secured a spot in the 123rd World Series, where the Brewers became MLB champions with 11 wins from 13 games in the postseason.

Milwaukee's William Contreras was named the World Series' most valuable player, with the 28-year-old becoming the eighth catcher to win the award and the third Venezuelan.

The Brewers won the first two games in Wisconsin and then the first in Florida, before the Rays, who were the American League's top seed, took it to game five.

Milwaukee went ahead at the top of the second inning as a single from Cooper Pratt sent Brice Turang home, before they added another run in the fifth off a David Hamilton hit.

The Brewers doubled their lead in their next at-bat through a double from Contreras and Pratt's sacrifice fly.

Milwaukee starting pitcher Jacob Misiorowski left the game in the sixth inning and the Rays finally got on the scoreboard in the ninth as Chandler Simpson sent Liam Hicks home off a double.

The Brewers entered MLB in 1969 as the Seattle Pilots, but the franchise moved to Milwaukee after only one season.