World Series 2026: Rays vs. Brewers Set, Game 1 Is Oct. 23

What happened

The 2026 World Series is set: the Tampa Bay Rays will face the Milwaukee Brewers, starting Friday, Oct. 23, in Milwaukee. Tampa Bay earned its spot Monday night by beating the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series at Tropicana Field, the Associated Press reports.

The headline is simple. Neither team has ever won it all. The Brewers and Rays are two of the five franchises still waiting for a first title, according to MLB.com, so the trophy will go somewhere new. It’s also the first time these clubs have met in the postseason, NBC Sports notes.

How the Rays closed out Cleveland

Tampa Bay trailed the series 1-0 and then 2-1 before winning three games in a row. In Game 6, Richie Palacios hit a two-run double in the second inning and Jonny DeLuca added a sacrifice fly in the third, AP reports. Junior Caminero, a two-time All-Star who hit 42 homers this season, launched a two-run shot in the seventh for his first postseason home run. Yandy Díaz, who had publicly predicted a Game 6 win, added a two-run homer in the eighth.

Freddy Peralta allowed one run over 5 1/3 innings for his second win of the series and was named ALCS MVP, per MLB.com. The sellout crowd was 40,230. Cleveland’s title drought now stretches to 78 years.

The matchup at a glance

A few things stand out. Milwaukee hasn’t played a World Series game in 44 years, and Game 1 will be the first one ever at American Family Field; the last in the city was at County Stadium in 1982, according to Wikipedia’s series page. The Brewers were an American League team back then, so this is their first trip as a National League club. The two sides met once in the regular season, March 30 to April 1, and Milwaukee won two of three games.

For the Rays, the run caps an unusual stretch. They played their 2025 home games at the Yankees’ spring training complex in Tampa after Hurricane Milton damaged Tropicana Field’s roof, AP notes, and new owners have a deal for a new ballpark expected in 2029.

If you followed Milwaukee’s run, our explainer on the Brewers’ NLCS sweep of the Dodgers covers how they got past the defending champions.

World Series 2026 schedule and TV

Home field goes to the team with the better regular-season record, which is Milwaukee. All games start at 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT) and air on Fox and Fox Deportes, with streaming on Fox One, per MLB.com.

*If necessary. The series is best of seven, so the first team to four wins takes the title.

What to watch

• Rest vs. rhythm: Milwaukee has been off since its NLCS sweep, while Tampa Bay clinched on Oct. 19 and gets three days before Game 1.
• Home field: Both teams were strong at home. Only the Brewers won more games at home this season than the Rays, who won 55, AP reports.
• Small markets on the big stage: For the first time since 2016, neither World Series team comes from California or Texas, according to Wikipedia.

Starting pitchers for Game 1 had not been announced in the sources Uptick reviewed.

Quick answers

When does the 2026 World Series start?

Game 1 is Friday, Oct. 23, at 8 p.m. ET in Milwaukee. A Game 7, if needed, would be Saturday, Oct. 31.

What channel is the World Series on?

All games are on Fox and Fox Deportes, and they stream on Fox One.

Have the Rays or Brewers ever won the World Series?

No. Both franchises are still looking for their first championship. The Rays lost in 2008 and 2020, and the Brewers lost in 1982.