Game result and context
Brewers 4, Rays 1: Cooper Pratt's bat closes out the World Series for Milwaukee
Cooper Pratt singled home the go-ahead run in the second and added a sacrifice fly, and Jacob Misiorowski allowed two hits in 5.2 innings as Milwaukee won Game 5 at Tropicana Field.
Cooper Pratt's line drive to center in the second inning did two things at once. It scored Brice Turang to give the Milwaukee Brewers a 1-0 lead, and it ended with Pratt himself thrown out at second after a relay that ran from Jonny DeLuca through four more Tampa Bay Rays infielders. The Brewers never gave the lead back. They beat the Rays 4-1 on Wednesday night before 40,489 at Tropicana Field and took the World Series 4-1.
Pratt was not a regular for the full season. He played 74 games and hit .281 with 3 home runs and a .718 OPS. October has been different. He went 2-for-3 with 2 RBI on Wednesday, a night after going 4-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBI in Game 4, and he finished the postseason 17-for-48, a .354 average, with 7 RBI in 13 games.
He had a hand in three of Milwaukee's runs. After the second-inning single, he scored in the fifth on David Hamilton's sharp single to right, which made it 2-0. In the sixth, William Contreras doubled to left to score Christian Yelich, and Pratt followed with a sacrifice fly to right in foul territory that brought Contreras home for a 4-0 lead.
Hamilton fits the same pattern. He hit .245 with a .650 OPS over 121 regular-season games, then batted .333 in the postseason with 2 home runs and 6 RBI. Turang added two hits on Wednesday.
Four runs were plenty for Jacob Misiorowski. The right-hander, who went 16-5 with a 1.80 ERA in the regular season, held Tampa Bay to two hits over 5.2 scoreless innings on 86 pitches and earned the win. His postseason ERA ended at 1.89 across four starts. JoJo Romero and Abner Uribe each got two outs, and Trevor Megill pitched the final two innings. The Rays' only run came in the ninth, when Chandler Simpson doubled to right to score Liam Hicks.
Tampa Bay finished with four hits and left nine runners on base. Simpson had two of the hits. DeLuca struck out three times. Junior Caminero, who hit 42 home runs with an .884 OPS in the regular season, went 1-for-4 and ended the postseason at .250 with 1 home run and 16 strikeouts in 14 games. The Rays scored one run on Wednesday and one in their Game 3 loss, a 10-1 Milwaukee win.
Drew Rasmussen, 16-5 with a 2.67 ERA in the regular season, lasted four innings on 48 pitches and was charged with the loss. Of the relievers who followed, Kevin Kelly was charged with one earned run and Garrett Cleavinger with two. Tyler Wells, Steven Matz, Bryan Baker and Ian Seymour kept the Brewers off the board the rest of the way, but the Rays did not get a run until the ninth.
The Brewers finished the postseason 11-2, with their only World Series loss a 4-3 decision in Game 4. They end the year as champions.