Brewers vs. Rays Is a World Series for People Who Love Baseball

Somewhere in a network office this week, a man in a quarter-zip is staring at a whiteboard that says BREWERS VS. RAYS and quietly closing a spreadsheet.

I understand the feeling. Last year baseball got the World Series every TV executive dreams about: Dodgers and Blue Jays, seven games, Shohei Ohtani on every screen in three countries. Game 7 averaged 51 million viewers across the U.S., Canada and Japan, and MLB says it was the most-watched baseball game since Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.

This year it’s Milwaukee, the smallest TV market in baseball, against a Tampa Bay team that won 98 games on a $90.5 million opening-day payroll. The Brewers opened at $125.9 million. Put them together and you’re still about $107 million short of what the Dodgers spent by themselves.

So if you’re a casual fan, or a man in a quarter-zip, I get the shrug.

If you actually like baseball, this is the one you’ve been waiting for.

A first-timer, guaranteed

Neither team has ever won a World Series. They’re two of the five franchises that never have, so somebody’s getting a first, and it’s the first World Series between two teams chasing their first title since the Phillies and Royals in 1980.

It’s also the first World Series since 1991 between two teams from the bottom half of the payroll list. You might remember 1991. Twins and Braves. Jack Morris threw 10 shutout innings in Game 7, and that’s the game last year’s Game 7 had to be measured against. Small-market World Series can be pretty good TV, is my point.

How they got here

Milwaukee won 103 games, a franchise record and the most in baseball. It got past San Diego in the Division Series and then swept the Dodgers, the two-time defending champions and the team that swept the Brewers in last year’s NLCS. Revenge doesn’t get much tidier than that.

Tampa Bay won 98 and the AL’s top seed. It swept the Yankees (Drew Rasmussen carried a no-hitter two outs into the eighth in a 1-0 Game 1), fell behind Cleveland 2-1 in the ALCS and then won three straight. Junior Caminero and Yandy Díaz hit two-run homers in Monday’s 7-3 clincher at Tropicana Field.

The ALCS MVP was Freddy Peralta. Yes, that Freddy Peralta. The Brewers traded him to the Mets in January, the Mets shipped him to Tampa Bay in August with a 4.99 ERA, and now he gets to pitch against Milwaukee in the World Series. Baseball has a sense of humor. Brewers fans might not, at least for a week.

Why this one is worth your time

Here’s my take, plainly: both of these teams win by playing baseball well, and that’s been rarer in October than it should be.

For years the postseason has been strike out or hit it out. Walks, strikeouts and homers, the three true outcomes, and not a lot in between. I think fans have gotten sick of it.

The Rays had the lowest strikeout rate in baseball this season. They put the ball in play more than anybody, led the majors in bunt hits (three Rays ranked in the top four) and finished second in infield hits. They make you field it, and then they make you field it in a hurry.

The Brewers scored 832 runs, second in the majors, while hitting 154 home runs, second-fewest. Their average launch angle of 9.2 degrees was the lowest in baseball by a mile. (Translation: they hit a lot of hard ground balls and dare you to make the play.) They led the majors in batting average and on-base percentage, stole 162 bases, swung at fewer pitches outside the zone than anybody and played one of the best defenses in the sport. Since 1989, only two other teams have won 100 games while hitting fewer than 155 homers. Milwaukee hitting coach Guillermo Martinez summed it up: “Our outs are tough outs, and it drains pitchers.”

One asterisk, because I watched the NLCS too. Against the Dodgers, Milwaukee went full slugger. Through the first three games, nearly half of its plate appearances ended in a walk, a strikeout or a home run, the highest three-true-outcomes rate for any team in an LCS since 1969, and the Brewers outhomered L.A. 7-1 in the sweep. For one week they beat the Dodgers at the Dodgers’ game. Over 162 games, they were a contact team that wore pitchers out.

And both of them already took down the big spenders to get here. Tampa Bay swept the Yankees and Milwaukee swept the Dodgers, two teams that each opened the season with a bigger payroll than the Rays, Brewers and Guardians combined.

If you need stars to tune in, they’re here. Jacob Misiorowski, the NL Cy Young favorite, threw a 105.5 mph pitch this season, the fastest ever recorded by a starter. Brice Turang drove in 100 runs. Caminero’s homer on Monday came off the foul pole, and he took 38.66 seconds to run it out, the longest postseason home run trot since 2015, per Statcast. (Take your time, Junior. It’s your pennant.)

The pick I already made

Back in September, before the Wild Card round started, I picked a Brewers-Rays World Series with Milwaukee winning it, and I admitted it wasn’t sexy to pick the two No. 1 seeds. It still isn’t sexy. It might be the best-played baseball you see all year.

Game 1 is Friday at 7 p.m. Central in Milwaukee, on Fox. If this goes seven, Game 7 is on Halloween at American Family Field.

The man in the quarter-zip can close his spreadsheet. The rest of us should turn it on.