How does this year’s World Series matchup compare to 2025 — and others since 2000? Nick Turchiaro-Imagn ImagesDavid SchoenfieldOct 20, 2026, 07:00 AM ETCloseCovers MLB for ESPN.com Former deputy editor of Page 2 Been with ESPN.com since 1995Multiple AuthorsOpen Extended ReactionsThis year’s World Series will have a tough act to follow. Not only was the 2025 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays the first seven-game affair since 2019, but it featured an 18-inning game and then a Game 7 that might have been the greatest baseball game ever played.The good news is we’re guaranteed that a long-starved fanbase will get to celebrate in 2026. The Milwaukee Brewers, coming off their impressive and dynamic four-game sweep of the Dodgers in the NLCS, are in the Fall Classic for the first time since 1982 and seek the first championship in franchise history, looking to put an exclamation point on their season after leading the majors with 103 wins.The Tampa Bay Rays were a 1998 expansion franchise and reached the World Series in 2008 and 2020 (the shortened season during the COVID-19 pandemic) but are seeking their first title as well. Young power hitter Junior Caminero and unheralded staff ace Drew Rasmussen lead the way as the Rays look to finally cash in after making the playoffs six times in the past eight seasons.The Brewers and Rays led their respective leagues in wins, always a bonus for those who want the best teams in the World Series.
Of course, a lot of attention will be given to the small-market aspect of the matchup, as the cloud of the lockout looms in the offseason.Let’s rank all the World Series since 2000 to see where Brewers-Rays fits in. This ranking is based on hype, the quality of the teams and their star power heading into the World Series. It’s not a ranking of the quality of the World Series itself, although we’re going to include a grade on that for each matchup. Let’s get to it.27. 2003: Florida Marlins over New York Yankees, 4-2The Yankees were back in the World Series for the sixth time in eight years, and the Marlins had rebuilt after their fire sale following their World Series title in 1997.
Trust me when I say that nobody wanted the Yankees in the World Series yet again. And the Marlins were merely a 91-win wild-card team. Most notably, however, both teams had spoiled the ultimate World Series by knocking off the Cubs and Red Sox — before either team had overcome its curse — in Game 7s in the LCS.Actual World Series: C. The Marlins won Game 4 in 12 innings, when Yankees manager Joe Torre inexplicably failed to use reliever Mariano Rivera, and then 23-year-old Josh Beckett tossed a five-hit shutout in Game 6.26. 2023: Texas Rangers over Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-1In an all-wild-card series, the fifth-seeded Rangers had won 90 games and the sixth-seeded Diamondbacks won only 84, making this the lowest combined win total in World Series history (for full seasons).
The Rangers were going for their first World Series title, so there was that, and there were some fun hitters — Corey Seager, the red-hot Adolis Garcia (who had just driven in 15 runs in the ALCS) and Corbin Carroll — but it was a soft matchup on paper.Actual World Series: D-. The series turned on Seager’s tying two-run homer off Paul Sewald in the bottom of the ninth of Game 1, which Garcia then won with a home run in the 11th. There wasn’t a single lead change after that, and three of those games were blowouts.25. 2011: St. Louis Cardinals over Texas Rangers, 4-3This was the Cardinals team that got hot in September and clinched a wild-card spot on the final day of the season when the Braves blew a lead in the ninth inning and lost in extra innings.
St. Louis certainly had star power with the likes of Albert Pujols, Lance Berkman and Matt Holliday but had won a World Series fairly recently (2006), and the Rangers had just been there the year before.Actual World Series: A. The first two games were one-run games, including the Rangers pulling out a victory with two runs in the ninth. In Game 3, Pujols blasted a record-tying three home runs.
Game 6 was the David Freese Game — perhaps the single most exciting baseball game ever played. Game 7 was a bit of an anticlimactic 6-2 Cardinals win.24. 2014: San Francisco Giants over Kansas City Royals, 4-3The second-lowest combined win total in World Series history featured two wild-card teams that won fewer than 90 games. The Royals were at least a good story — in the playoffs for the first time since winning the World Series in 1985 — and had gone 8-0 in the AL playoffs, including an epic win over the A’s in the wild-card game. The Giants, however, had just won the World Series in 2010 and 2012, and this team didn’t seem nearly as good as those two.Actual World Series: B-.
Five of the games were blowouts, but it did at least go seven. It’ll be remembered for Madison Bumgarner’s historic performance: a shutout in Game 5 (the last complete game shutout in World Series history) and then five scoreless innings of relief in Game 7, getting Salvador Perez to pop out with the tying run on third to end it.23. 2007: Boston Red Sox over Colorado Rockies, 4-0The Red Sox were only three years removed from breaking the Curse of the Bambino in 2004, so although they were still a star-laden team with David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and scrappy rookie Dustin Pedroia, they were no longer as interesting. The Rockies were a fun story, winning 14 of their final 15 games, including beating the Padres in a tiebreaker, just to win a wild-card spot. Then they went 7-0 in the NL playoffs and had won 21 of 22 entering the World Series.Actual World Series: F.
A dud. Two of the games were one-run games, but this goes down as one of the least memorable World Series of all time, with a forgettable four-game sweep.22. 2006: St. Louis Cardinals over Detroit Tigers, 4-1The Tigers were the story of the season. They had lost 119 games three years before and 91 just the previous year.
With rookie starter Justin Verlander winning 17 games, they led the AL Central most of the season — only to lose their final five games and squeak into the playoffs as a wild-card team. The Cardinals won a weak NL Central with only 83 wins — although they at least had Pujols at his absolute peak (.331/.431/.671, 49 home runs). Both teams hadn’t won a World Series in a couple of decades: 1982 for the Cardinals, 1984 for the Tigers. Plus, it did feature two of the original 16 franchises.Actual World Series: F.
The Cardinals won one game in the bottom of the eighth, but it was otherwise a blur of nothing, most characterized by several fielding miscues by Tigers pitchers. David Eckstein won MVP honors without hitting a home run and while driving in only four runs.21. 2021: Atlanta Braves over Houston Astros, 4-2The Braves were back in the World Series for the first time since 1999 — they had made 12 playoff appearances in the intervening years without making it to the Fall Classic. Still, this was the weakest of the Atlanta playoff teams of recent vintage, winning only 88 games and missing Ronald Acuña Jr. for the playoffs. The Astros, meanwhile, were back in the World Series for the third time in five years — but the first time since the 2017 sign-stealing scandal had broken in November 2019.
Let’s just say not everyone wanted them there.Actual World Series: D. This was a weird World Series. The Braves ended up going with two bullpen games (who remembers that Dylan Lee and Tucker Davidson started?) after Charlie Morton broke a leg in Game 1. Astros starters kept getting knocked out early (the only starter to go more than five innings for either team was Max Fried in the finale).
Four of the games were blowouts.20. 2012: San Francisco Giants over Detroit Tigers, 4-0The Giants were back after winning in 2010, and the Tigers were back for the first time since 2006, featuring Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera and a strong 1-2 punch in the rotation with
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