The Tampa Bay Rays are headed to the World Series for the third time in franchise history after finishing off the Cleveland Guardians in Game 6 of the ALCS on Monday night, 7-3. After two disappointing seasons that saw them fall out of the postseason entirely, the Rays have shown that their strong 2026 campaign, which had them winning the AL East division title with a record of 98-64, was no mere fluke.

But of course, the job is far from finished. The Rays are going to face the best team in MLB this year in the Milwaukee Brewers, the team that won 103 games in the regular season and even swept the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. Suffice to say, the road ahead is only about to get more difficult for the AL pennant winner.

Nonetheless, manager Kevin Cash is instilling so much confidence in the Rays clubhouse that fans might have to book a flight to Milwaukee to catch Game 1 and Game 2 of the World Series live.

“We got one more bite!” Cash said as he kicked off the Rays' locker room celebration, via B/R Walk Off on X. “I think we got a flight to Milwaukee!”

Kevin Cash and the Rays are headed to the World Series 🍾 pic.twitter.com/km0RcOg5oQ

— B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) October 20, 2026

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It's an incredible achievement for the Rays and Brewers to have made it this far. These two teams operate on shoestring budgets relative to the big-market teams, ranking 28th and 19th, respectively, in player payroll for this year.

But there is only going to be one team left standing at the end of this season, The stakes are even higher for both teams considering that these two franchises have never won a World Series title, with the Rays suffering heartbreaking defeats in 2008 and 2020 and the Brewers falling short all the way back in 1982.

Perhaps the third time's the charm for the Rays; Cash knows the pain of losing on the grand World Series stage, as he was Tampa Bay's manager six years ago, so perhaps the lessons he's learned from that defeat will be enough for them to be able to get over the hump.