The Rays Meet Milwaukee in a Series Without Champions

The Tampa Bay Rays beat Cleveland 7-3 on Monday and reached the World Series to face the Milwaukee Brewers. It is the first Fall Classic pairing of two clubs still seeking a first title since 1980.

Freddy Peralta, obtained from the New York Mets on Aug. 2, allowed one run in 5 1/3 innings and was named ALCS MVP. Game 1 is Friday, Oct. 23, in Milwaukee, where Peralta spent eight seasons before the Brewers traded him in January.

A Two-Out Double Opened the Door

A sellout crowd of 40,230 at Tropicana Field, cowbells included, watched the Rays close a 4-2 series after Cleveland had taken two of the first three games. Shawn Armstrong opened a bullpen game for the Guardians. Peralta, the starter Tampa Bay wanted in an elimination spot, never put up a clean 1-2-3 inning and still kept Cleveland to one run through 5 1/3, five hits, three walks and three strikeouts.

Richie Palacios did the early damage. With two outs and two strikes in the second, he doubled in Chandler Simpson and Victor Mesa Jr. Jonny DeLuca’s sacrifice fly in the third scored Junior Caminero and made it 3-0. Nathaniel Lowe’s single in the sixth, scoring Chase DeLauter, was Cleveland’s first run.

HOW GAME 6 WAS SCORED

• Second inning: Palacios doubled with two outs and two strikes, Simpson and Mesa Jr. scoring, 2-0 Rays.
• Third inning: DeLuca’s fly to left scored Caminero, 3-0.
• Sixth inning: Lowe singled in DeLauter, 3-1.
• Seventh inning: Caminero homered off the left-field foul pole, 346 feet, Kyle Hicks scoring, 5-1.
• Eighth inning: Cleveland walked and hit-by-pitch for two runs, 5-3, before Yandy Diaz’s 416-foot shot scored Taylor Walls, 7-3.

Caminero’s drive was his first career postseason home run, and it came off a splitter from All-Star reliever Cade Smith. The third baseman hit 42 homers in the regular season after 45 the year before. Diaz, who had said through an interpreter on Sunday that the Rays would finish it Monday, then hit Hunter Gaddis for the last two runs.

Kevin Cash named the series MVP on the postgame stage with two words: Fastball Freddy. Stephen Vogt, Cleveland’s manager, called the seventh a gut punch and said his club never quit. The Guardians, 85-77 in the regular season, had already come back on the Chicago White Sox in the Division Series. They did not get a fourth straight stop.

The Magic of Rays Baseball #ForTampaBay | #Postseason pic.twitter.com/0hSu9tGFzp

— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) October 20, 2026

The 1980 Series Was the Last Pairing Like This

The last time two clubs arrived in the World Series without a title between them, the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Kansas City Royals in six games. Philadelphia had been in the National League since 1883 and had lost the Series in 1915 and 1950. Kansas City was in its first Fall Classic after three straight ALCS losses to the Yankees.

On Oct. 21, 1980, at Veterans Stadium, Steve Carlton and Tug McGraw finished a 4-1 Game 6 in front of 65,838. Mike Schmidt, the Series MVP after a 48-homer season, singled in the third for the first two runs. In the ninth, Bob Boone and Pete Rose both went after Frank White’s foul pop; it left Boone’s glove and landed in Rose’s. McGraw then struck out Willie Wilson for the last out, completing the Phillies’ first World Series championship.

This is truly monumental.

Tug McGraw, Phillies closer, after Game 6 in 1980

Schmidt told writers that night that people were looking at the world champions, and that it was a good feeling. Forty-six seasons later, Tampa Bay (pennants in 2008 and 2020) and Milwaukee (one pennant, in 1982, as an American League club) walk into the same empty space. One of them will leave it.

Peralta Goes Home as the Other Club’s Ace

Peralta’s year is the plot twist the pairing did not need and somehow got anyway. He went 17-6 with a 2.70 ERA in 33 starts for Milwaukee in 2025, led the National League in wins, and finished fifth in Cy Young voting on an $8 million club option. The Brewers had already moved Corbin Burnes and Devin Williams in recent winters rather than watch them walk. On Jan. 21 they sent Peralta and Tobias Myers to the Mets for Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat, two of New York’s better young players.

David Stearns, the Mets’ president of baseball operations and the executive who had developed Peralta in Milwaukee, called him another established starter to lead the rotation. New York got a 5-9 record, a 4.99 ERA, and 113 2/3 innings across 22 starts. On Aug. 2, with the Mets selling, they flipped him to first-place Tampa Bay for outfielder Aidan Smith, infielder Emilien Pitre, and right-hander Gary Gill Hill. The Rays took on the $2.4 million left on the deal.

PERALTA’S YEAR ON THE MOVE

1. January 21, 2026: Milwaukee trades Peralta and Myers to the Mets for Williams and Sproat.
2. August 2, 2026: New York sends Peralta to Tampa Bay for three minor leaguers.
3. October 19, 2026: He wins Game 6, takes ALCS MVP, and is pointed at a World Series against the Brewers.

With the Rays he posted a 2.75 ERA in 72 innings across the regular season and the playoffs. In the ALCS he was 2-0 with a 0.75 ERA: six scoreless innings in Game 2, two outs in relief in Game 4, then the clincher. He has allowed five earned runs over his last 50 1/3 innings, nine starts, dating to the regular season. He is 30 and can be a free agent when this Series ends.

Milwaukee is always going to be in my heart, but it’s time to compete. I’m grateful to be here and excited to go home.

Freddy Peralta, ALCS MVP, after Game 6

He also said the room changed the first time he walked into a Rays dugout, in Colorado, against the Rockies. New York, in this telling, was a six-month layover. Milwaukee gave him the career. Tampa Bay gave him October. The club that dealt him is now the one standing in the other dugout, and Jake Bauers, a former Rays prospect, is the Brewers’ NLCS MVP. The two series awards sit on opposite sides of the same trade tree.

Which Clubs Have Never Won a World Series?

MLB’s own list still shows five clubs still without a title. After this Series, that list will have four names. Seattle remains the only franchise that has never even appeared. San Diego and Colorado have been there and lost. Milwaukee and Tampa Bay now play for the right to leave the group.

CLUBS WITHOUT A WORLD SERIES TITLE

The Rays lost to those 1980 Phillies in five games in 2008, then lost to the Dodgers in six in 2020. Milwaukee, still in the American League, took a 3-2 Series lead on the St. Louis Cardinals in 1982 and lost in seven with Harvey’s Wallbangers. The Brewers’ next pennant took until this month, and it came in the National League, the first NL flag in club history.

Cleveland’s Title Drought Hits 78 Years

The club that did not get through is the one with the longest wait of all. Cleveland last won in 1948, against the Boston Braves, and has since lost the World Series in 1954, 1995, 1997, and 2016. That is 78 years without a title, a span MLB already listed as the longest active championship drought before this ALCS began.

Jose Ramirez and the Guardians led the American League Central, then won three straight to beat Chicago in the Division Series. Against Tampa Bay the rotation, the bullpen, and the late innings went the other way. Three straight losses ended the year. For a fan base that watched 2016 slip from 3-1, the wait simply moved into another winter.

The Rays, by contrast, are in their 29th season and already on a third pennant. They averaged 97 losses over their first 10 years as the Devil Rays, then changed the name, the colors, and the habit of losing. 2008, 2020, and now 2026. The missing piece is the trophy.

Home Field Belongs to a 103-Win Club

Milwaukee was the best team in baseball at 103-59 and then swept the two-time champion Dodgers in the NLCS. The Brewers won 2-1 and 7-4 at American Family Field, then 6-2 and 6-4 at Dodger Stadium. They trailed in all four games and still finished in four. Los Angeles, chasing a third straight title, did not win once.

BREWERS NLCS SWEEP

• Game 1, Oct. 11: Brewers 2, Dodgers 1, in Milwaukee.
• Game 2, Oct. 12: Brewers 7, Dodgers 4, in Milwaukee.
• Game 3, Oct. 14: Brewers 6, Dodgers 2, in Los Angeles.
• Game 4, Oct. 15: Brewers 6, Dodgers 4, in Los Angeles, after a 4-0 hole.

Christian Yelich said after the clincher that the group was happy for the fans who had stuck with the club, and that big games were still in front of them. Those games are now against a Rays team that just went 98-64, swept the Yankees in the Division Series, and rode Peralta, Drew Rasmussen, and a deep bullpen through Cleveland. DraftKings Sportsbook opened Milwaukee as a -155 favorite, with Tampa Bay at +135.

Friday’s Opener Returns Peralta to Milwaukee

Game 1 is Friday night, Oct. 23, at American Family Field, the first World Series game in that park. Game 2 is there on Saturday. The Series then moves to Tropicana Field, the building that needed a rebuilt roof after Hurricane Milton tore through it.

Peralta called Milwaukee the city that gave him the chance to live the dream, then said it was time to compete. He will walk into a park he knows in a uniform he did not wear there. One of these clubs will win the first World Series title in its history. The other will join Cleveland, San Diego, Colorado, and Seattle on the list that just got shorter by one.