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Baseball fans league-wide watched the Milwaukee Brewers put together a historic playoff performance in 2026, culminating in a World Series victory over the Tampa Bay Rays. Milwaukee's 11-2 postseason run included a 3-1 National League Division Series win against the San Diego Padres, a 4-0 sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series, and a 4-1 World Series triumph over Tampa Bay.
Such a dominant record against elite competition underscored how thoroughly the Brewers were firing on all cylinders. Once the World Series concluded, Milwaukee's pitching staff took center stage for its extraordinary contributions.
The Brewers' rotation and bullpen combined for a 1.98 ERA over 118 innings in 13 postseason games. The rotation alone posted a 2.72 ERA in 53 innings, while the bullpen delivered a remarkable 1.38 ERA across 65 innings. According to Just Baseball, Milwaukee's 1.98 team ERA is the lowest by any team in a single postseason since at least 2000.
Before the 2026 playoffs, the lowest postseason team ERA over the previous 30 years belonged to the 2023 Philadelphia Phillies at 2.20. The Brewers shattered that benchmark, making their 1.98 ERA over more than 50 innings an absurd achievement.
Key Analysis
Milwaukee entered the 2025 playoffs riding the momentum of a then-franchise-record 97 wins, but the rotation beyond Freddy Peralta was unsettled. A year later, the Brewers boasted three reliable starters in Jacob Misiorowski, Logan Henderson, and Robert Gasser, with Dustin May also starting multiple playoff games. The bullpen then produced one of the best runs in major league history—a stretch that defied prediction. Aaron Ashby was excellent in the regular season, yet forecasting 18 scoreless playoff innings would have been nearly unfathomable. Both the rotation and bullpen executed their roles and dominated, etching this run into the record books and delivering Milwaukee its first World Series trophy.