ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. — When the final out was made, gloves were thrown in the air, players sprinted to the middle of the infield, and then jumped up and down with one another as well as with the thousands of screaming Brewers fans who had taken over Tropicana Field.
In other words, it was time to act like a bunch of kids.
And why the heck not?
Not only did the Brewers win the first World Series title in franchise history, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 on Wednesday night to clinch the 2026 championship in five games, but they also did it with youth leading the way.
William Contreras was a deserving MVP, with everything he contributed with his bat and behind the plate — at the ripe old age of 28.
But the Brewers’ championship roster, with a payroll in the bottom half of the league, also was built with some true baby faces that include a trio of young stars: starting pitcher Jacob Misiorowski (24), left fielder Jackson Chourio (22) and shortstop Cooper Pratt (22), who all played key roles during the World Series.
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The flamethrower
Misiorowski is the favorite to win this year’s NL Cy Young award. In the regular season, he had a 16-5 record and a 1.80 ERA, with 252 strikeouts.
Those numbers are nice, but Misiorowski is known for one thing: bringing the heat. He set an MLB record for most 100-plus mph pitches thrown in a single game (57) in May. He also became the first pitcher in MLB history to throw more than 1,000 pitches at 100-plus mph in a single season.
In Game 1 of the World Series, he set the record for the fastest pitch in the Fall Classic with his first throw of the night, at 103.5 mph. For the game, Misiorowski had 38 pitches at 100-plus mph, the most in a World Series contest.
“He’s come a long way since last year where he was a young kid with a lot of ability and natural talent,” Brewers captain Christian Yelich said of Misiorowski. “Anybody could see that looking at the radar gun and kind of what he could do, but I think he’s come a long way, like learning himself as a pitcher and learning how to pitch, and he’s still learning in a lot of ways. But he’s matured a lot, he’s gotten to know himself a lot, he’s gotten confident, and he continues to get better.”
Misiorowski also became one of only two pitchers age 24 or younger to start Game 1 of the Division Series, LCS and World Series in the same postseason.
He picked up the World Series-clinching win in Game 5, throwing 5 ⅔ scoreless innings and allowing just a couple of hits.
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The leadoff catalyst
Like Misiorowski, Chourio had a standout regular season. He had career highs in batting average (.291), runs (96), hits (152), home runs (25), walks (47) and stolen bases (23). He also became the third player in major league history to begin his career with at least three straight 20-20 seasons.
And during the World Series, it seemed like his name was constantly being put in the same company as the game’s greats, like the greatest of the great.
In Game 3, Chourio became the second-youngest player under the age of 23 with at least four hits and a stolen base in a World Series game. Ty Cobb is the youngest, having done so in 1908.
In Game 4, Chourio had two hits, bringing his total to 10 hits in four games. That tied a mark set by Babe Ruth in the 1928 World Series.
Ty Cobb! Babe Ruth! 1908! 1928!
“I get numb to it because I get to see it every day and get to hit with him every day,” Brewers right fielder Sal Frelick said after Chourio’s Game 3 performance. “So when I go out there and see nights like this that he has, I wouldn’t say that’s what we expect of him, but it kind of is. No one’s surprised at that, just because of how fortunate we are to have him on our team.”
Brewers manager Pat Murphy said what stood out to him from that game wasn’t those four hits, but Chourio’s final at-bat in the seventh inning, when the Brewers were up 10-0.
“I don’t think you guys talk about what happened last night,” Murphy said the next day. “It’s a record, it’s the only other player to ever do this. I look at Jack Jack, like four good at-bats and he was really ticked off that he got called for the checked swing.
“The bottom line is, that mentality to have that fifth at-bat even though we were leading by 10 runs, to mean just as much as the other at-bats, that tells you something.”
MORE: How William Contreras led the Brewers to a championship and grabbed an MVP award in the process
The rookie
Entering the World Series, Pratt was one of the lesser-known players on the Brewers. And for those who did know him, it was more for his steady presence at shortstop, not necessarily for what he did at the plate.
But in the World Series, Pratt’s bat came alive. In Game 4, he hit a game-tying double in the fourth inning and a go-ahead homer in the 12th. It was the first World Series home run by a rookie.
And that was all part of a hit parade for Pratt that carried over to Game 5. He set a rookie record with six consecutive hits, which is second-best overall in World Series history.
“I hadn’t seen him play a whole lot until he got called up, just a few times in spring training,” Yelich said of Pratt before Game 5. “Everyone was talking about his glove coming up, but he can really hit. He’s got some really good at-bats, and he got some big hits during the season for us, and postseason obviously.”
With his two RBIs in Game 5, he brought his total to seven, tying the record for the most by a rookie in a World Series. All this from a guy who had three home runs and 34 RBIs in the regular season.
The Brewers had been a model of success before this season. The World Series was just the final piece for a franchise that had reached the postseason eight of the last nine years.
Misiorowski and Pratt were draft picks, while Chourio was an international free agent signing. If the front office can keep identifying young talent like its World Series star trio, the Brewers won’t be going away from the postseason anytime soon, whenever the next postseason is.
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