At long last, the Brewers are World Series champions. In the organization’s 58th season, Milwaukee finally secured its first title. After falling just short of a series sweep on Tuesday night in Game 4, the Brewers took care of business at Tropicana Field on Wednesday night, taking down the Rays, 4–1, to close out the series in which they’ve been the better team in just about every facet.

The Brewers got on the board first on Wednesday night, opening the scoring against Rays starter Drew Rasmussen in the second inning. Rasmussen surrendered a double on a hanging changeup to Brice Turang and proceeded to hit Sal Frelick with a pitch in the following at-bat. Then, red-hot rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt delivered an RBI single that scored Turang, but was caught in a rundown between first and second base.

The RBI single was Pratt’s fifth hit in his last five at-bats, including the go-ahead home run in extra innings in Game 4. Pratt tacked on another hit in his next at-bat during the fifth inning, which saw him set a record for the most consecutive hits (6) by a rookie in World Series history.

There wasn’t a lot of action on the base paths in the early going. The Rays had just one hit and drew one walk against Misiorowski through three innings, though the regular-season leader in strikeouts didn’t record a single punch-out until midway through the fourth inning on Wednesday night. It was the first time he didn’t have a strikeout through the first three innings of a start in his career.

The Rays were threatening in the fourth inning, but ultimately failed to get on the board. Misiorowski hit Liam Hicks with a pitch, and with two outs in the inning Chandler Simpson hit a single and grabbed an extra base after a bobble from Sal Frelick in right field. With runners on second and third, Misiorowski got Game 4 hero Ben Williamson to ground out to third base, though an errant throw from David Hamilton required Jake Bauers to make an impressive catch to secure the inning-ending out at first base.

Rasmussen, who was pitching on just three days rest, exited the game after four innings with just 48 pitches under his belt. The Rays bullpen was called upon early, and Kevin Kelly came on in relief, but surrendered back-to-back singles to Pratt and Garrett Mitchell. David Hamilton then sent a ground ball through the infield which scored Pratt, making it a 2–0 game.

Garrett Cleavinger relieved Kelly in the fifth inning and got out of the jam with a strikeout, but he ran into some trouble in the sixth. After hitting Christian Yelich with a pitch to open the inning, William Contreras belted a double off the left field wall, which enabled Yelich to come across and score. The following batter, Brice Turang, hit a blooper into shallow left, giving Milwaukee runners on the corners and ending Cleavinger’s night after just eight pitches.

With Tyler Wells on the mound, Pratt came back to the plate and delivered once again, hitting a fly ball into foul territory out in right field, deep enough for Contreras to tag up and score from third base, making it 4–0 in the sixth.

Misiorowski’s night came to an end midway through the sixth inning after he pulled up awkwardly after a pitch to Hicks, with a cramp in his right leg. He pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings while surrendering just one hit, two walks and striking out only two batters. Misiorowski limped back to the dugout and was relieved by JoJo Romero, who recorded two outs without allowing a baserunner. Abner Uribe followed him, getting two outs himself before the baton was passed to closer Trevor Megill in the eighth inning.

The Rays didn’t go down quietly, however. Hicks hit a one-out double off Megill in the bottom of the ninth, a hit that received a rather generous bounce off first base which enabled him to cruise into second, before Chandler Simpson drove him in with a single to right field.

They couldn’t string together anymore hits, however, as Megill got Richie Palacios to ground out to second base to end the game, cementing the Brewers’ place in MLB lore. The team rushed onto the field in celebration, while the disheartened and defeated Rays could only watch from the dugout.

Pop your champagne bottles, folks, or in Pratt’s case, your Fanta.

Milwaukee has enjoyed one of the great postseason runs in league history, and you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t think it’s deserving of this World Series title. The Brewers defeated the Padres in the division series in four games before sweeping the reigning champion Dodgers in the NLCS, reversing their fortunes from the previous season in which it was Los Angeles who sent Milwaukee crashing out of the postseason. Then, in their first World Series appearance since 1982, the Brewers were able to lift the Commissioner’s Trophy in Tampa Bay, defeating the Rays in a series-clinching Game 5. All said, Pat Murphy’s club ended the postseason with an 11–2 record and outscored their opponents by a total of 26 runs.