The Tampa Bay Rays came up one win short of their first World Series championship, falling 4-1 to the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 5 at Tropicana Field on Wednesday night as Milwaukee closed out its first title.
Drew Rasmussen took the ball on short rest for Tampa Bay, but the start was a limited one from the beginning. Kevin Cash said Rasmussen would be capped at about 60 pitches because of how much he had already been used in the series, and the right-hander didn’t get near that number.
He was lifted after four innings and 48 pitches, with one earned run allowed on two hits and four strikeouts. The quick hook opened the door for the Brewers, and the move to Kevin Kelly backfired almost immediately when David Hamilton lined an RBI single.
Garrett Cleavinger followed and surrendered two more runs on just eight pitches.
That early damage proved decisive.
Milwaukee starter Jacob Misiorowski kept Tampa Bay’s lineup quiet for most of the night. He worked 5.2 innings, gave up only two hits and struck out two, and did not give the Rays much to work with before leaving after 86 pitches because of a lower leg cramp. From there, Pat Murphy turned to Jojo Romero, Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill, and the Brewers’ bullpen finished the job.
Tampa Bay finally scratched across a run in the bottom of the ninth, when Chandler Simpson delivered an RBI single. But the rally stopped there. Richie Palacios grounded into second base for the final out, and the Rays’ bid for a first World Series title ended with it.
The 2026 season now comes to a close for Tampa Bay, a year that stretched from the World Baseball Classic to the Fall Classic. Free agency opens tomorrow morning, the day after the final World Series game.
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Ben Williamson eventually supplied the finish, lining the walk-off hit that sent the Rays home with a win and pushed the series to a Game 5. For a club that needed every out just to survive, the victory was equal parts bullpen grit and late-game nerve, the kind of escape that can change the mood of a series in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]