Cooper Pratt Battles It Out for Brewers Collective to Take World Series Game 2

MILWAUKEE—They are beginning to pile up now, ready to be bound in leather like an anthology of great fables. The Canterbury Tales of baseball. William Contreras writing Chapter 1 with a game-winning homer off Adrian Morejon. Jackson Chourio beating Mason Miller. Jake Bauers winning two epic at-bats with a combined time of possession of 12:45. Garrett Mitchell swatting a left-on-left pennant-winning homer. Christian Yelich, in his first World Series at-bat after 14 big league seasons, ripping a triple to drive in the first run of the series.

The Milwaukee Brewers are a true collective. The way they win baseball games is by letting everyone have a turn at spinning yarns that at this rate will have the staying power of Geoffrey Chaucer’s stories.

In World Seres Game 2 Friday night, the fableist du jour was Cooper Pratt, the strait-laced, “freaky nerdy” Brewers shortstop who at 22 years old should be drinking apple cider and playing at Ole Miss instead of winning World Series games.

COOOOOOOOOP ❕❕❕ pic.twitter.com/KU8vS46aip
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 25, 2026

“He's better down in the count—battle, battle, battle, battle—than he is ahead in the count,” said Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy, who chose the “freaky nerdy” descriptor. “He’s just a straight arrow. The one thing he has, the kid battles.”

Never during this 9-1 grindfest of a postseason have the Brewers been so annoying to opposing pitchers as they were against Tampa Bay in Game 2. Milwaukee sent 41 batters to the plate in their eight innings of offense. Brewers hitters saw 184 pitches—the most by Tampa Bay in a road loss this year. At an average of 4.49 pitches per plate appearance, they wore down Rays starter Drew Rasmussen and an overwhelmed Tampa Bay bullpen to win 5-4 after spotting Tampa Bay four runs in the top of the first.

This is becoming a trope. Gilligan’s Island was less predictable. The Brewers have dismissed nine of their 10 opposing starters in five innings or less, including Michael King, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal and Rasmussen. They turn every postseason game into a bullpen game, and they do not lose bullpen games, especially with the prayerful Aaron Ashby staying in this state of amazing and scoreless grace of his (15 2/3 innings of zeroes).

And eventually, a new author takes his turn at writing history. Say hello to Pratt, who comes from Senatobia, Miss. (population 8,300), or as his father, Russ, likes to say, “The Middle of Nowhere, Mississippi.” Russ played college baseball, runs a baseball training facility called “The Farm,” and continues to serve as his sons’ hitting coach. They talk every day.

“He'll text me and be like, ‘Hey, bro, you gotta loosen up,’ or ‘Hey, you're doing this, this, and this,’ ” Cooper said. “Each night after a game I talk to him. After the first [NLCS] game, against Skubal, he’s like, ‘Dude, you can tell your heart's racing.’ And I was like, ‘Dang, you're probably right.’ And the next day, I think I had a couple hits.”

Pratt was an outstanding high school player who committed to Ole Miss. On the day of the 2023 draft, he gathered friends and family at home to see which team would select him.

“I mean, I thought I was really good,” he said. “I still thought I should have been a first or second rounder out of high school.”

But the first and second rounds passed without his name being called. So did the third. He left the house to go hit. Friends left. The fourth round went by and still crickets. It seemed obvious now that teams were concerned about his signability. With each passing round he so appeared headed to Ole Miss that he left for the school to pick up his parking pass for the fall semester.

“And as I was in line for my parking pass, I got a call from my agent,” he said.

The Brewers selected him in the sixth round.

“It was nervous time,” said GM Matt Arnold. “You think you can get a player like that later, but you really don’t know. Grady Fuson once told me, ‘Pick the major leaguer.’ Not rely on tools so much. Finally, we said, ‘Let’s do it.’ ”

They made him an offer.

“No, it’s got to be a little more than that,” Pratt told them.

The Brewers came back with $1.35 million, about $1 million above slot. Pratt said yes. The Brewers got a first-round talent in the sixth round.

“I thought, If I'm going to play in the big leagues, this is my opportunity now,” Pratt said. “Because if I go to college, I'll probably end up going on a mission for my church. And then when I come back, I may be too old, and I probably won't get this opportunity.

“So, the door's open now. And do I want to play in the big leagues, or do I want to play college ball? I kind of decided, ‘This is my window. This is my shot. I'm going to go for it. If it doesn't work out, I can go back to college.’ ”

It worked out so well, the Brewers signed him to an eight-year, $95 million contract this year and established him as their everyday shortstop. He hit .281 with a .350 OBP, the first 21-year-old shortstop to do so since Fernando Tatis Jr. in 2019.

This postseason, his defense slipped (he opened Game 2 with a careless throwing error) and he had not driven in a run by the time his moment arrived in the seventh inning. The game was tied with one out and Brice Turang at third base when Rays manager Kevin Cash brought in slingshot right-handed reliever Kevin Kelly for Pratt.

While Kelly made his way to the mound, Murphy told Pratt, “This is not a guy you try to pull. You can't pull this guy. You’ve got to go the other way. You have to.”

Then hitting coach Dan Vogelbach put his arm around Pratt and told him, “You’re the right person for this spot. You deserve to be in this spot. You belong in this spot.”

Said Vogelbach, “Obviously, I was trying to get him to slow it down a little bit. I think in this game sometimes when it speeds up in the biggest moments, you just need to be reminded sometimes that you're the right guy.”

Pratt fell behind 1-and-2, the second strike resulting from an ugly, nervy chase swing on a pitch not close to the zone

“My heart was racing,” Pratt said. “I'm not going to lie. You saw me chase the 1-1 pitch in the other batter's box. You try to relax and calm down and breathe and focus. Then good things happen.”

He took the next pitch for a ball. And then, here came the most Brewer of all possible swings: a two-strike slash that sent a sinker from Kelly on a line to the opposite field. No team hits more to the opposite field than Milwaukee. Turang scored and the game, because the Brewers’ bullpen hermetically seals games, effectively was over. The Brewers have outscored their postseason opponents after the sixth inning, 15-2.

Cooper Pratt's game-winning hit went to the Brewers' favorite target: opposite field. | Erick W. Rasco/ Sports Illustrated

Said Vogelbach, “He's shown such a good ability the whole time he's been here, but especially in the playoffs, with two strikes to back guys up and really stay inside the baseball. And he's done that really the whole time he's been here. But man, in the playoffs he's been so good with that.

“It’s crazy. We talk about it all the time. Him, [Luis] Lara and Chourio, they should be playing college baseball right now.”

Said Pratt, “They're big on the swing decisions in this organization. I don't have the best swing decisions. I chase a little bit. But they are big on the three pillars of contact, swing decisions, and damage—and swing decisions being probably the biggest. Because you look up here, we walk a lot, we take our bases. They prepare you for that in the minor leagues. And then you get to the big leagues and it's like, ‘Oh, I've done this before.’ ”

Pratt is beloved around the Brewers for his straight-laced nerdiness and his accountability. When the team clinched the NL Central title, Pratt was stuck in his St. Louis hotel room with the flu. The boys on the team brought their celebration to him later, packing apple cider rather than booze.

The Brewers play a collegial style of baseball. In the dugout on every full count to one of their hitters they will yell, “Base hit, ball four!” It’s hard to tell the bottom of the lineup from the top.

“I had so much fun at college,” said Ashby, who played at Crowder Junior College in Missouri. “We had a dungeon for a weight room, and the facilities were not great, but we got along so well it was so much fun. You get into pro ball and it’s different. People are out for themselves trying to get to the big leagues. I wondered if it would ever be fun like it was at Crowder. Until this year.

“This year is the most fun I’ve ever had in baseball. It’s such a great group of guys who pick each other up.”

The Brewers are the only franchise to come within one win of a World Series title without ever winning one, having blown a lead in Game 7 in 1982. Now they are within two wins of their first title. Watching the way they win is like watching a high-wire acrobat. It is simultaneously dangerous and thrilling, but deep down you know they are going to make it through. They have played all but six of their 90 innings this postseason separated by no more than two runs from their opponent. They have trailed in seven of the 10 games, twice by four runs.

But somehow, they are 9-1. At-bat by at-bat, player by player, they are compiling an anthology of winning baseball. Two more tales remain.

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