World Series will have first-time champion as Rays set up showdown with Brewers

Freddy Peralta threw 5.1 gritty innings, Junior Caminero and Yandy Díaz each hit a two-run homer and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night to advance to the World Series for the third time in the franchise’s 29 seasons.

The Rays will face the Milwaukee Brewers who, like Tampa Bay, are seeking to win their first-ever World Series. A sellout crowd of 40,230 fans waved yellow-and-blue rally towels, rang cowbells and chanted “Let’s go Rays!” throughout the night at Tropicana Field, which needed major renovations after Hurricane Milton shredded the roof two years ago and caused extensive damage throughout the stadium.

The Rays played their 2025 home games across the bay in Tampa at the New York Yankees’ spring training complex, got new ownership before this season and secured a new stadium deal to be ready in 2029 near the NFL’s Buccaneers. They returned to the Trop to win 55 games in the regular season. Only Milwaukee had that many home wins this year.

The loss extended Cleveland’s World Series championship drought to 78 years.

The best-of-seven World Series between low-payroll pennant winners opens Friday night in Milwaukee. It will be the first World Series between title-less teams since the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Kansas City Royals in 1980. Just five of the current MLB 30 teams have never won a title, with Colorado, San Diego and Seattle also ringless.

“The city is ready. I know that the fans are ready, and I know that we’ll be ready,” said Milwaukee’s Jake Bauers, MVP of the four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Championship Series.

Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski heads the pitchers with his 100 mph-plus heat, and each team features a dynamic 22-year-old anchoring the lineup: Jackson Chourio of the Brewers and Junior Caminero of the Rays. Tampa Bay’s Peralta and Drew Rasmussen could pitch against their former teams.

The Brewers started as the expansion Seattle Pilots in 1969, then were bought by Bud Selig’s group in bankruptcy court and moved to Milwaukee for the 1970 season. The team’s only Series trip was a seven-game loss to St Louis in the 1982 Suds Series, back when the Brewers were in the American League.

Tampa Bay launched as the expansion Devil Rays in 1998 and dropped the “Devil” ahead of the 2008 season. The team’s two World Series appearances ended with losses to Philadelphia in 2008 and the Dodgers in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

Milwaukee had MLB’s 19th-highest payroll as of 31 August. Tampa Bay were 25th. Not since 1991 had both pennant winners been among the bottom 50% in player spending. Minnesota were 15th among 26 teams when they beat Atlanta (19th) in seven games.