Five potential difference-makers in the 2026 World Series

The next game, Bauers turned an 11-pitch at-bat against starter Blake Snell — again with the Dodgers ahead, 2-1 — into a two-run home run, his first of the playoffs.

Per Baseball Reference, those plays (Yelich's hit and Bauers' home run) were two of the three most impactful plays in terms of championship win probability added in the series.

During the regular season, Bauers had the ninth-lowest swing rate (40.6 percent) among qualified major leaguers, per Baseball Savant, and that patient approach was instrumental to Milwaukee's dominant NLCS. He'll have to be just as deliberate with his pitch selection against the Rays.

Rays third baseman Junior Caminero

Caminero is Tampa Bay's only player to appear in all 171 games (including postseason) this season, but his value extends far beyond his availability.

After blasting 42 home runs during the regular season, he snapped a long drought to begin the playoffs with a two-run shot in Monday's ALCS-clinching win over the Cleveland Guardians. And he made sure to savor every moment of it, taking 38.7 seconds to round the bases, which ESPN Insights noted was the longest home run trot of the Statcast era (since 2015).

Who knows how long he'll take to reach home if he hits a walk-off home run in one of Games 3-5. The Brewers better not let him get the chance.

Rays starting pitcher Drew Rasmussen

The projected Game 1 starter, Rasmussen has the difficult task of going up against likely NL Cy Young Award winner Jacob Misiorowski. But if each's October is indicative of how the World Series opener will go, Tampa may be able to steal home-field advantage out of the gate.

Compared to the regular season when he posted an MLB-low 1.80 earned run average with 252 strikeouts in 174.2 innings, Misiorowski has struggled during the playoffs, recording a 3.24 ERA with 11 strikeouts in 8.1 innings across two starts. He failed to get out of the fifth inning in each game while allowing 13 total base runners (nine hits, four walks).

Rasmussen, meanwhile, has been even better in the playoffs, improving his ERA from 2.67 in the regular season to 1.29 through three postseason starts. He's gone at least six innings in each start, including a masterful eight-inning outing in Game 1 of ALDS against the New York Yankees, when Rasmussen allowed one hit with 10 strikeouts in a 1-0 victory.

Brewers second baseman Brice Turang

Despite hitting two home runs, leadoff hitter Jackson Chourio has struggled overall through eight playoff games, slashing .171/.211/.343 with nearly as many strikeouts (five) as total base hits (six).

Over the last three games of the NLCS, he went 1-for-15 (.067), providing little value at the top of the order. That could make Turang, No. 2 in the lineup against the Dodgers, vital to the Brewers offense.

During the four-game sweep, Turang slashed .364/.563/.727 while scoring six runs in 17 plate appearances. He finished the series with more walks (five) than strikeouts (four). Milwaukee needs more of that, particularly if Chourio's struggles persist.

Brewers reliever Abner Uribe

With seven appearances in Milwaukee's eight playoff games, there hasn't been a reliever manager Pat Murphy has trusted more.

But after pitching six shutout innings in his first six outings, cracks surfaced in his most recent appearance when allowing two earned runs in 0.1 innings during Game 3 of the NLCS.

Milwaukee's bullpen is one of the main reasons it finds itself four wins away from the franchise's first World Series title. This postseason, Brewers relievers have a 1.33 ERA, second-lowest in the majors, per FanGraphs. 

For Milwaukee to finish the job, it will likely need Uribe back at his sharpest, where he was when the postseason began.