World Series 2026: The Rays are learning the hard way what the Padres and Dodgers already know — these Brewers are relentless

“Relentlessness is the reciprocal of quitting, yielding, giving up. It is an aggressive, persistent, attack-mode attitude. It defines a warrior. The relentless performer gives himself intensely, entirely and constantly to competition.” — the late Harvey Dorfman, legendary mental skills coach, friend and mentor of Brewers manager Pat Murphy

MILWAUKEE — As the Milwaukee Brewers filed back toward their dugout after a disastrous top of the first inning on Saturday in World Series Game 2, they did so calmly, without concern, entirely oblivious of the scoreboard.

The Tampa Bay Rays had just bumrushed starter Logan Henderson, tagging him for four runs, two via a crowd-silencing long ball from catcher Liam Hicks. For the visitors, it was a welcome outburst following a sleepy offensive showing in their Game 1 loss. High-fives and atta-boys echoed on their side of the diamond as fielders gathered their belongings and jogged to their positions.

In Milwaukee’s dugout, nine undaunted souls prepared for a familiar climb. Nowhere, in manager Pat Murphy’s field of vision, was a shred of panic. 

“I didn't say anything. I was just standing over there doing what I do,” he said. “I eat these mints all day long so my breath is good if I go out and argue with an umpire. I didn't say much, but I heard these guys talking to each other, and they were dead-focused that they could continue to climb back in the game, and that first inning did a lot.”

“We came up with a plan offensively. The scoreboard isn’t going to dictate it,” NLCS MVP and first baseman Jake Bauers said. “The focus is making sure everybody knows that it doesn’t matter.”

If you clock them in the mouth, these Milwaukee Brewers will crack their neck, swallow a few teeth and, entirely unbothered, swing right back. They are bulletproof zombies, cockroaches in baseball pants. They are also now 9-1 in October. Remarkably, the Brewers have trailed in seven of those wins, twice by four runs. 

For Murphy’s club, early postseason deficits are just minor inconveniences. The Rays are learning this now as the Padres and Dodgers nod in solidarity from their couches. Each consequential Milwaukee comeback only strengthens the Brewers’ united confidence, like fire forging steel. The sun will rise, the sun will set, and the 2026 Brewers will retake the lead and hold onto it.

Such is the act of relentlessness.

“Everybody’s truly bought into that,” reliever DL Hall, who tossed a scoreless sixth in Milwaukee’s 5-4 victory in Game 2, explained. “We’ve had such crazy games throughout the year. We had a nine-run comeback. So when you put up four, especially in the first? Man, we got nine innings.”

On Saturday, nine innings were not necessary. The Brewers counterpunched immediately; just three minutes elapsed between the final out of the top of the first and the first baserunner of the bottom. Leadoff hitter Jackson Chourio slapped the second pitch he saw from Tampa Bay starter Drew Rasmussen into right field for a base hit. American Family Field jolted back to life. The Brewers scored twice in the frame with a quartet of singles and were on their way.

“Our offense is built to kind of chip away and wear on pitchers, which I think can be good when you're trying to come back. At the same time, if we're up, it's the same exact approach,” explained plucky outfielder Sal Frelick, whose sixth-inning solo homer tied the score.

It’s a process-based lifestyle reaffirmed by positive results, a repeatable recipe for success. A run on an error here, an improbable homer there (Frelick homered just four times in the regular season), and belief becomes reality. Eventually, somebody (it doesn’t matter who, but in Game 2 it was Brice Turang) will reach base, and somebody else (it doesn’t matter who, but in Game 2 it was Cooper Pratt) will drive them in. It’s inevitable, a law of the universe, that enough blue-and-yellow cleats will touch enough white polygons for a Brewers deficit to become a Brewers lead. Add six scoreless from the best bullpen on Earth, including another 1 ⅔ spotless frames from the immaculate Aaron Ashby, and you have a franchise two wins from its first World Series title.

As the series flips to Florida’s Gulf Coast for Game 3 on Monday, it’s difficult to envision this Milwaukee freight train being derailed by a Rays club currently playing below its own standards. Having ALCS MVP Freddy Peralta on the hill for that must-win contest will inspire some confidence, but a storybook turnaround feels impossible without an awakening from Tampa’s thus far unimpressive offensive unit. For the final eight innings of Game 2, the Rays failed time and time again to push another run across. That ineptitude soon turned to frustration. At one point, superstar Junior Caminero could be seen screaming in displeasure across the dugout.

It felt like the antithesis of Milwaukee’s confident serenity, their placid relentlessness.

The Brewers’ even-keeled obstinance in the face of adversity is a massive part of what makes the NL champs so special. Having a collection of elite ballplayers helps, too, but as Yogi Berra once said: “Baseball is 90% mental, and the other half is physical.” That quip absolutely applies to these Brewers, whose philosophy of resilience starts with Murphy, a man with the word “undaunted” tattooed on his right forearm.

On Murphy’s right bicep is another piece of ink: large black lettering that says “200 club.” It’s a mantra he coined long ago alongside Harvey Dorfman, the renowned mental skills coach who won two World Series rings as an advisor for the 1989 A’s and 1997 Marlins. A friend of Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold recently got a similar tattoo after hearing Murphy tout its significance. 

The number is the result of a monoalphabetic cipher; take each letter in a word and assign it the value of that letter’s place in the alphabet. For example, A becomes 1, B becomes 2 and so forth. Add all the letters’ values together, and you get one number.

What does 200 represent? 

“F***ing relentless.”

Such are the Brewers. It’s tattooed all over them.