Brewers close out Rays in Game 5 for 1st World Series title - ESPN

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — They were deemed too young and unheralded, dismissed as punchless and inexpensive, defined more so by what they lacked than what they possessed. They won 103 regular-season games, the most in Major League Baseball for a second straight year, and yet when October arrived, the Milwaukee Brewers were generally portrayed as underdogs, a moniker to which they've grown accustomed.

Now, for the first time ever, they warrant a different label: champions.

The Brewers dispatched the Tampa Bay Rays and capped a dominant run through the postseason with a 4-1 victory at Tropicana Field in Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday night, cementing the first title in the franchise's 57-year history in front of thousands of fans who made the 1,300-mile trek from Milwaukee.

A Brewers team that carried baseball's 19th-highest payroll, ranked 28th in home runs and was widely viewed as the type of club that could not thrive this time of year went 11-2 in the playoffs, surviving a tension-filled wild-card series against the San Diego Padres before overwhelming the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series and racing past the similarly unsung Rays in the final round.

The clincher was set up, fittingly, by Jacob Misiorowski hurling triple-digit fastballs and overwhelming Rays hitters through five scoreless innings, during which he recorded two strikeouts but also allowed just four baserunners. Misiorowski exited because of a cramp in his right calf with two outs in the sixth inning, marking the first time he had pitched beyond the fifth inning in these playoffs — but by then, the damage had been done.

Cooper Pratt, the rookie shortstop who hit what could have been the