Scheduled for 2026, baseball's championship round is set to pit the Tampa Bay Rays against the Milwaukee Brewers. A championship at MLB level — the kind ratified each year since 1967 by the Commissioner's Trophy — has eluded both franchises throughout their histories.
Baseball's championship series carries a history tracing all the way back to 1903. Between them, the Tampa Bay Rays — who joined the league in 1998 — and the Milwaukee Brewers, a franchise dating to 1969, have combined for only three appearances in the World Series. For the first time since 1980, both clubs arriving at the World Series carry the same distinction — neither has ever lifted the championship trophy.
Across six contests that season, the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Kansas City Royals to claim a championship — the first the franchise had secured across its 97-year existence. Kansas City's championship drought ended in 1985, when the Royals captured the title.
For the second year running, none of the four major North American professional leagues will enter their championship round with a returning title-holder still in contention. The Oklahoma City Thunder — a franchise carrying the lineage of the Seattle SuperSonics, who took the court for the first time in 1967 — secured an NBA championship for the first time in franchise history by defeating the Indiana Pacers in a seven-game 2025 Finals series. Indiana's NBA Finals record stands at two losses and no victories, a ledger that sits alongside three championship titles earned during the franchise's ABA years.
On two occasions across the preceding decade of NHL play, neither finalist had previously lifted the Stanley Cup — the more recent instance coming in 2023, when Las Vegas's expansion franchise defeated Florida's Panthers across five games to claim the title. The Panthers' hold on the Stanley Cup extended across the following two championship cycles.
Claiming the Lombardi Trophy at the close of the 1999 campaign, the St. Louis Rams defeated the Tennessee Titans in Super Bowl 34.
On two prior occasions the Tampa franchise has reached the World Series, with the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign marking the most recent trip. Posting a 40-20 ledger — a pace that translates to 108 wins across a full 162-game slate — Tampa Bay's Rays held the top position in the American League, with Lowe, Adames, and Arozarena driving the lineup while Snell, Glasnow, and Yarborough anchored the rotation.
A two-game dismissal of the Toronto Blue Jays in the wild-card round gave way to back-to-back series that each ran the full distance — five contests against the New York Yankees in the ALDS, followed by seven against the Houston Astros in the ALCS. With the 2020 World Series held at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, Tampa Bay dropped the championship contest to Los Angeles in a six-game run.
After the opening four contests ended split at two apiece, a walk-off base hit from Brett Phillips against Kenley Jansen handed his club the fourth game. With Los Angeles having claimed Game 5, manager Kevin Cash pulled Blake Snell from the mound at Tampa Bay in the sixth inning — a decision that has remained a topic of debate — at a point when Snell held a one-run lead and had logged only 73 pitches. A 3-1 defeat was the final outcome for Tampa after the team's early advantage slipped away.
Tampa Bay's lone previous World Series appearance ended in a five-game defeat against Philadelphia in 2008. Under Joe Maddon's direction, a Tampa Bay roster that featured the offensive output of Carlos Peña and a Rookie of the Year–winning Evan Longoria turned a 66-96 ledger from the year before into a 97-65 finish, delivering the franchise its first-ever appearance in the postseason.
Tropicana Field hosted the first two contests of the World Series matchup against the Phillies, with the Rays splitting those games, before a prolonged rain stoppage in Philadelphia set the stage for a walk-off defeat in Game 3 — a postseason run that had earlier included a 3-1 American League Division Series victory over the Chicago White Sox and a full seven-game American League Championship Series against the title-holding Boston Red Sox.
Peña's tying hit in the sixth inning drew the two sides level, at which point a rain delay brought the contest to a halt — all of it unfolding with the series hanging on the outcome of Game 5. When play picked back up two days on, Jayson Werth put Philadelphia back in front, only for Rocco Baldelli to level matters with a home run — before Pedro Feliz drove home the run in the bottom of the seventh that settled both the game and the series.
Milwaukee's previous appearance in the World Series came during an era when the Brewers still competed under the American League banner. Fuelled by Robin Yount's MVP-calibre campaign and contributions from Paul Molitor — whose run total ranked among the league's highest — and Gorman Thomas, whose home-run output topped the majors, Milwaukee posted a 95-67 finish to claim the AL East crown for a second consecutive year.
With two losses already on the ledger from the opening pair of American League Championship Series contests against California, a bases-loaded hit by Cecil Cooper in Game 5 delivered enough runs to seal a 4-3 verdict and cap a three-game recovery.
When the 1982 World Series got underway, Milwaukee's Molitor and Yount together collected nine hits across twelve at-bats as the Brewers rolled past St. Louis 10–0 in the opener. After dropping Games 2 and 3, St. Louis rebounded to post a 13-1 victory in Game 6, setting up a decisive seventh contest. Back-to-back run-scoring hits by Hernandez and Hendrick, each arriving with the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth, handed St. Louis a lead over Milwaukee that the Cardinals held onto through the game's final play — a turnaround made all the more notable given that a Molitor single and a Cooper sacrifice fly had put the Brewers ahead just moments before.
Of the franchises competing at the highest level of professional baseball, five have yet to claim a World Series championship. Four times — in 1995, 2000, 2001, and 2025 — the Seattle Mariners advanced as far as the American League Championship Series, yet a berth in the World Series has remained beyond their grasp throughout the franchise's history.
Two World Series appearances mark the Tampa Bay Rays' history since the franchise launched in 1998 — a five-game defeat to the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008, and a six-game series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020. Founded in 1993, the Colorado Rockies faced the Boston Red Sox in the 2007 World Series and were swept across all four games. Founded in 1969, the San Diego Padres reached the World Series twice — dropping all four games to the New York Yankees in 1998 and falling to Detroit four games to one in 1984. Founded in 1969, the Milwaukee Brewers fell to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1982 World Series by a margin of four games to three. Founded in 1977, the Seattle Mariners have advanced to the American League Championship Series on four separate occasions — posting playoff runs deep enough to reach that stage in 1995, 2000, 2001, and 2025.
Fox holds the broadcast rights for every game on the 2026 World Series schedule. The opening contest is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Friday, October 23, with American Family Field in Milwaukee, Wisconsin serving as the host venue. The second contest is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Saturday, October 24, also at American Family Field in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The third contest in the series is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Monday, October 26, with Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, serving as the host venue. The fourth contest of the series is set for 8 p.m. on Tuesday, October 27, also at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. Scheduled as a contingency matchup, the fifth contest would take place at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, October 28, at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
A potential Game 6 is pencilled in for 8 p.m. on Friday, October 30, at American Family Field in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, contingent on the series requiring a sixth contest. A potential Game 7 is pencilled in for 8 p.m. on Saturday, October 31, at American Family Field in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
