The Milwaukee Brewers are three wins from the first championship in franchise history after a 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 1 on Friday night at American Family Field. It was the kind of game that tells you a lot about both rosters: Milwaukee scored early off hard contact and handed the rest to a bullpen it trusts, while Tampa Bay’s top of the order kept getting on base and the bottom of it couldn’t cash anything in. Game 2 is tonight in Milwaukee, with Drew Rasmussen facing the organization that drafted him and rookie Logan Henderson getting the ball for the Brewers.
This is the first World Series since 1980 in which neither team has won a title. For fantasy players, the season-long games are finished, but October is still the best free scouting window you get before 2027 drafts. Here is what Game 1 told us and what to watch tonight.
How Game 1 Was Decided
Milwaukee did all of its early damage in the first inning against Rays starter Nick Martinez. Christian Yelich tripled in the game’s first run and William Contreras followed with a run-scoring single for a 2-0 lead. Martinez settled in after that and finished five innings without allowing another run, but the hole was dug. Jackson Chourio added an insurance run with an RBI hit in the seventh.
The ninth inning was chaos. Trevor Megill entered with a 3-1 lead, and with one out Jonathan Aranda and Chandler Simpson singled, a double steal put two runners in scoring position, and Junior Caminero worked a full-count walk to load the bases. Liam Hicks then hit a grounder that was initially ruled a game-ending double play. Replay showed shortstop Cooper Pratt’s foot had come off second base, the out was overturned, and a run scored to make it 3-2. Megill reset and struck out Jonny DeLuca on a 2-2 pitch with the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position.
The defining number for Tampa Bay: 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. Aranda went 3-for-3 with a walk and the Rays still lost.
Game 2: Rasmussen vs. Henderson
Drew Rasmussen, Rays
Rasmussen has been Tampa Bay’s best starter this October. He has a 1.29 ERA over 21 innings in three playoff starts, working into the seventh inning every time out, including the start that shut down the Yankees in the ALDS opener and the Game 5 gem against Cleveland in the ALCS. That carries over from a dominant second half: he went 11-0 with a 1.73 ERA after the All-Star break.
There is a storyline layer here too. The Brewers drafted Rasmussen in 2018 and traded him to Tampa Bay in 2021, so he is facing the franchise that moved him with a chance to even the series.
Logan Henderson, Brewers
Henderson finished his rookie regular season 11-3 with a 2.47 ERA, and Milwaukee is 21-4 in his 25 career starts including the playoffs. The one blemish came in NLCS Game 2 against the Dodgers, when he allowed four runs (two earned), the first time in his career he gave up more than three in a start. Milwaukee won that game 7-4 anyway on its way to a sweep of the two-time defending champions.
The matchup to watch is Henderson against the Rays’ top three of Yandy Díaz, Aranda and Caminero. Tampa Bay’s lineup is top-heavy, and Game 1 showed that if those three don’t do the damage, the rest of the order struggles to pick them up.
Fantasy Takeaways for 2027
None of this changes a 2026 fantasy standing, but scouting doesn’t stop when your league ends. These are the October performances worth carrying into draft prep.
Jacob Misiorowski, SP, Brewers
Misiorowski opened the World Series with a 103.5 mph fastball, the fastest pitch ever thrown in a World Series in the pitch-tracking era. His line was modest by his standards — five innings, four hits, one run, one walk and three strikeouts — but the three strikeouts were a low for him, not a red flag. The velocity is fully intact at the end of a long season, which is the thing you actually want to know about a young power arm heading into an offseason. Expect him to be priced as a front-line ace in 2027 drafts. The question for your board is innings, not stuff.
Logan Henderson, SP, Brewers
Henderson is the profile that tends to come cheaper than it should: a rookie with an ERA in the mid-2s, on a team that keeps winning his starts, without the radar-gun headlines of his rotation-mate. If drafters treat him as a mid-rotation arm next spring, he is a clear target.
Drew Rasmussen, SP, Rays
The second half and the October workload are what matter here. Seven innings a start in the playoffs is a different pitcher than one you have to manage through the fifth. If Rasmussen comes into 2027 healthy, the post-break run makes him a legitimate fantasy SP2 with win upside on a 98-win team.
Junior Caminero, 3B, Rays
Caminero produced a 112.7 mph batted ball in Game 1 and then took a full-count pitch in the dirt to load the bases in the ninth. Power hitters who also take their walks in high-leverage spots are the ones whose production holds up. He remains a cornerstone corner infielder in any format.
Jonathan Aranda, 1B, Rays
Aranda’s 3-for-3 night with a walk was the best individual offensive game on either side. He is a contact-and-on-base bat hitting in front of Caminero, which is a run-scoring role worth paying attention to in OBP and points leagues.
William Contreras, C, Brewers
Contreras had two hits, drove in a run and threw out two would-be base stealers. At a position where most fantasy managers punt, a catcher who hits in the middle of a 103-win lineup and plays every day remains a premium pick.
Jackson Chourio, OF, Brewers
Chourio hit leadoff, collected two hits and drove in the insurance run that ended up deciding the game. Leadoff at-bats in a lineup this good mean volume of runs scored, and he is still young enough that the best version of his profile is ahead of him.
The Milwaukee Bullpen
Abner Uribe, Aaron Ashby and Megill covered the final four innings with Megill finishing it. For 2027 saves and holds, this is a bullpen with defined roles, and roles are what you are drafting in relief pitching. Megill’s escape act was messy but he got the strikeout he needed.
The Series From Here
After tonight the series moves to Tropicana Field for Games 3 and 4 on Monday and Tuesday, with Game 5 on Wednesday if needed. Games 6 and 7 would return to Milwaukee on Friday, Oct. 30 and Saturday, Oct. 31. Milwaukee finished 103-59 and holds home field; Tampa Bay finished 98-64.
Tonight’s game comes down to whether Rasmussen can keep doing what he has done all postseason against a Milwaukee lineup that did all its damage early in Game 1, and whether the Rays’ lineup can finally convert the traffic its top three keep creating. If Rasmussen goes seven again, the Rays head home even. If Henderson keeps Díaz, Aranda and Caminero in check, the Brewers take a 2-0 lead to St. Petersburg.
See today's MLB lines on DFS Lines, each one set against the player's last ten games.