Chicks dig the … small ball?
Bunting, situational hitting, and productive outs had seemed to become a lost art in today’s baseball. But the two teams in this year’s World Series brought it all back.
The Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays were each the top seed in the National and American Leagues, respectively, and throughout this postseason, they’ve shown why.
Now, one of those franchises will be crowned World Series champions for the first time, and all the action will be on FOX.
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The Brewers had the second-lowest payroll in all of baseball, while the Rays had the eighth-smallest. Those payrolls have led to a heavy emphasis on analytics. But their analytics have zigged when the rest of the league’s have zagged.
It is no secret, despite how much people want to deny it, that home runs win (more on that later). That has been the case in the regular season as well as the postseason since stickball. Yet the Brewers and Rays ranked 29th and 22nd in total home runs this season.
Their success, instead, has come at the hands of good old batting average – they both hit .258, good for the top two spots in the league. Both teams also had the highest batting averages with runners in scoring position (Rays were .284, Brewers were .276).
Tampa Bay also ranked first in sacrifice bunts with 45, and Milwaukee’s 37 were the fifth-most. That’s not to say that bunting means you will win – the Los Angeles Dodgers had 23 combined sac bunts in 2024 and 2025, both seasons that ended in titles.
But it works for the Rays and Brewers.
The Rays (49) and Brewers (32) also ranked first and second in bunt hits. They also were tied for second in infield hits, behind only the Pittsburgh Pirates.
In the days where exit velo has taken over (hitting the ball hard has always mattered, by the way), the Rays had the highest soft-hit percentage and second-worst hard-hit percentage. The Brewers ranked 12th and 18th in those categories and ranked sixth in medium-hit percentage.
Nobody pulls the ball less often than the Brewers, and nobody goes up the middle and oppo more than they do, as well. The Brewers even hit ground balls at a higher rate than anybody and fly balls at the lowest (the Rays are fifth in grounders and 25th in fly balls). All of that is a tremendous shy-away from modern-day data taking over.
Strikeouts have become more acceptable in baseball, but not in Florida. The Rays had the lowest strikeout percentage this season. Milwaukee, though, actually struck out at a higher percentage than most teams – they ranked 14th throughout the season, and they’re actually striking out a ton this October.
The Brewers have actually strayed away from their brand of baseball this October. In the National League Championship Series, they had the largest three-true-outcome percentage (home run, walk, strikeout) out of any LCS team since 1969. They were outhit in two games and struck out more than the Dodgers in each game. The walks shouldn’t surprise anybody, as they had the highest walk rate in the regular season.
But they out-homered the Dodgers in each game (the Dodgers went homerless in three of the games), and all season long, Milwaukee hit home runs that hurt badly.
Despite hitting the second-fewest in the league, they actually had the ninth-most home runs with a runner on base and the highest percentage of multi-run homers in the league.
The Rays also used the long ball throughout their American League Division Series against the New York Yankees and to clinch the pennant against the Cleveland Guardians.
In all of this, the pitching cannot be dismissed. The Brewers have maybe the best pitcher in the sport in Jacob Misiorowski, and it feels like the Rays can pick up anyone reading this and turn them into a weapon on the bump.
Brewers pitchers own a 2.03 ERA this postseason, while the Rays’ staff sits at 2.59. Opponents are hitting just .183 and .201 off them, respectively, and they are allowing fewer than one homer per game.
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Small ball and elite pitching undeniably got these small-market juggernauts to the big dance, but what they’ve proven this October is they can beat you in multiple ways – even by going the apparently dreaded “boom or bust.” Now, all that is to be seen is which style while bring it home.
All the action begins Friday in Milwaukee at 8 p.m. ET on FOX.
