This is an incredible time in sports. Granted, it does not last long. But right now, every major sports league in North America is active. The NBA season just started, and the NHL season started not long before that. The NFL is now more or less at its mid-season point. The MLS is winding down, with playoff time approaching. The WNBA Finals is happening right now. And of course in baseball, the World Series is happening.
You cannot get much busier than that with sports in North America.
Well, the World Series actually just ended last night. The Milwaukee Brewers closed out the series by winning Game 5 in Tampa Bay, thus clinching a 4-1 series win.
For the first time in franchise history, the Milwaukee Brewers are World Series champions.
The first two games in Milwaukee were tight, decided by one run. Yet, they were both won by the Brewers, as Milwaukee took a 2-0 series lead as the series then shifted to Tampa Bay.
Then the Brewers blasted the Rays in Game 3, 10-1. They made it look as if they had been merely toying with the Rays in the first two games.
Now to their credit, the Rays did manage to win Game 4 to avoid the sweep. It was a very tight game, going into extra innings. Tampa Bay won to stay alive, forcing a Game 5. They were hoping to win that one and get back into the series, force the Brewers to face the pressure of winning it all in front of their home fans.
However, that did not happen.
While the Brewers did not obliterate the Rays like they did in Game 3, they still won Game 5 convincingly, 4-1.
Milwaukee took an early 1-0 lead in the 2nd inning, then expanded it to 2-0 in the 5th inning. They then added two more in the fifth, to make it a commanding 4-0 lead.
Now, Tampa Bay did manage to get on the scoreboard, making it 4-1 in the 9th and final inning. However, it was not nearly enough The Rays simply had no answers against the Brewers in this game, or in this World Series more generally.
Tampa Bay now is 0-3 in their three World Series appearances. They enjoyed a very successful season, and managed to overcome a 1-2 series deficit in the ALCS to Cleveland in order to qualify for this World Series. Against the Brewers in this postseason, however, they simply ran out of gas. Apparently, the Brewers were just too much for them.
Indeed, the Milwaukee Brewers enjoyed a season of pure dominance. They were the dominant team during the regular season, earning an MLB best 103 wins. They then followed that up by going 11-2 in the postseason, en route to their first ever World Series title.
While I am not the biggest baseball fan or historian, it was one of the most dominant postseasons by any MLB team that I have ever heard of. But I did some research, and found that one team the 1976 Cincinnati Reds, actually are the only MLB team to go undefeated throughout their playoff run, going 7-0. They played fewer games back then, however.
Beyond that, however, two other teams in recent MLB history had likely more dominant playoff runs. The 1999 New York Yankees and the 2005 Chicago White Sox both went 11-1 en route to winning the World Series. Also, the 2022 Houston Astros also finished the postseason with an 11-2 record on their way to winning the World Series.
So the Milwaukee Brewers succeeded in finishing a dominant season by leaving no doubt that they were far and away the best team in Major League Baseball this season.
Congratulations to the Brewers and the fans in Milwaukee, and Wisconsin more generally.
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