Whicker: Brewers poised to win World Series with ensemble cast
October 27, 2026
By Mark Whicker
Canadian Baseball Network
With one out in the eughth inning, Sal Frelick rushed toward Ben Williamson’s dying fly ball.
He skidded, caught it and rolled over on his right shoulder, which was hurt anyway. Frelick’s teeth reflected the pain, but then he started laughing. The exhilaration of making a late-inning catch in the World Series is better than ibuprofen. Note: Frelick’s Milwaukee Brewers were leading Tampa Bay, 10-0.
It ended at 10-1, and the Brewers lead the World Series, 3-0.
For a small-market team, their fans were anywhere and everywhere. They barged into Tampa Bay’s Tropicana Field. They jammed into their home ballpark to watch it on the video board. There were even reports of ticket-scalping. The downtown Deer District was also fawning over the Brewers. The only thing keeping them from being America’s Team is that they’re churning to their first championship too quickly. Besides, the Cowboys were playing on a rival channel, so that’s where most of the eyeballs went. But the thing about Frelick is that he would have made that dive in front of empty bleachers. The Brewers are not playing the scoreboard, or even the Rays. They’re playing the book.
For most of this century it has become gospel that you can’t win this way, at least not offensively, that you can’t base-hit and run and execute your way to victory. No, it takes massive uppercut swings to propel baseballs over fences, and strikeouts are just collateral damage. And it has worked, to a point, when accompanied by superior pitching and defense. There are certain players who can slug their way to championships, or close to them, but they’re usually not the players the Brewers can afford.
Jackson Chourio and William Contreras, the two leading offensive contenders for Series MVP whenever this ends, are a product of the belief system. Both have ample power. Chourio is only 22. You’d think he’d be trying for tape-measure shots every time. Instead, he has eight hits in the Series, and seven are singles. He has led off four innings and gotten four hits.
Contreras is 7-for-13, all base hits. As a team, the Brewers are hitting .333 with two out, 12-for-36. Tampa Bay is hitting .083.
Contreras will get points by throwing out three basestealers, including the blurry Chandler Simpson, who is one of the few Rays to introduce himself nobly to the Series audience. And certainly Aaron Ashby’s 15 1/3 scoreless innings out of the bullpen will sway some MVP voters. For that matter, Robert Gasser outpitched Freddy Peralta Monday, with one hit and one walk over six innings.
You can tell how special a team is when you have trouble deciding the proximate cause of their victory. In fact, we’re suddenly in a phase of ensemble casts.
The Carolina Hurricanes had no obvious Hall of Famers when they rampaged through the Stanley Cup with a 16-3 record. The Knicks had Jalen Brunson, but he played himself into celebrity during the NBA playoffs, and everyone else in the lineup had a prominent part, all the way to OG Anunoby getting the follow-up bucket that finished the Game 4 comeback.
Connor McDavid hasn’t won a Stanley Cup yet. Aaron Judge hasn’t won a World Series and neither has Bryce Harper, nor Luka Doncic. One would expect that all of them will, but it’s so much easier when everyone has fingerprints on the prize, especially in baseball. “Trust” has become a cliche because it’s so true. If Chourio didn’t trust the other Brewers, he would be chasing down-and-away sliders, and walking back to the dugout with his bat.
This game was an exploding cigar. Milwaukee only led 2-0 after four innings. Simpson had electrified the Rays’ cheering section by going face first into a wall to catch Frelick’s liner into the leftfield corner. Peralta, who came into the game with a 1.08 postseason ERA, had two out with Chourio on first. Then Chourio stole second and Christian Yelich, who with Brandon Woodruff are the only Brewers who were in the 2018 NLCS, got a walk. Clouds began gathering.
Contreras, who isn’t fast, drilled a grounder into the 5.5 hole. Third baseman Junior Caminero had to pivot, so he possibly didn’t see Contreras stumbling out of the box. He flipped to second base but the 34-year-old Yelich got there first. Everybody safe and bases loaded.
This finished Peralta and brought in lefty Cam Booser, who has been money against lefty hitters. Not this time. Brice Turang, the next hitter, worked a 2-2 count and sent a seed that shortstop Taylor Walls couldn’t apprehend. That made it 4–0 and set off a feeding frenzy that’s usually seen in Milwaukee when somebody yells “Last call.” Garrett Mitchell singled on the first pitch for two runs. Cooper Pratt doubled on the next pitch for two more runs. Frelick doubled to score Pratt. Milwaukee got eight runs out of that harmless-looking situation.
Nobody’s ever done that with two out in a World Series game.
Only two clubs, the 1999 Yankees and the 2005 White Sox, have gone through a triple-decker playoff with only one loss. The Brewers are 11–1. Those White Sox actually pitched four consecutive complete games in the ALCS vs. the Angels, if you’re looking for inviolate records. Tampa Bay could win Game 4, of course, but there’s nothing duller than a mystery when you’ve already figured out the culprit.
The statistically-obsessed among us love to talk about the three True Outcomes of any plate appearances: a walk, a strikeout or a home run. Everything else, they say, is a product of happenstance and is therefore unimportant. But the three True Outcomes require only three players and precious little athletic ability. No slides, no plays at the plate, no dancing at the double-play bag. You wonder just what you’ll remember from such a walkover Series, if that’s indeed what happens. Most of us will remember how Sal Frelick ignored a 10-run lead, scoffed at the outcome. Instead, he was true.