Kevin Cash is 'crushed' as the Rays remain one of four teams without a World Series title

The Tampa Bay Rays have now been to the World Series three times and lost all three. Milwaukee beat them 4-1 in Game 5 on Wednesday night, and the Brewers became the first team to celebrate a championship at Tropicana Field.

"I'm crushed right now, disappointed," manager Kevin Cash said, according to MLB.com. "But it's easier to handle because of what we all meant to each other throughout the course of this season, and certainly this last month in October."

With the Brewers off the list, the Rays are one of four franchises that have never won a World Series, along with the Padres, Mariners and Rockies, MLB.com noted. Tampa Bay also lost in 2008 and 2020.

That hurts more given where this team started. The Rays were widely projected to finish last in their own division, MLB.com said. They spent most of the year with the American League's best record, won the AL East by beating the Yankees in New York, then swept the Yankees to reach the ALCS. All of it came back at Tropicana Field, two years after Hurricane Milton ripped off the roof.

Game 5 never gave the home crowd much. Drew Rasmussen, starting on three days' rest, held Milwaukee to one run over four innings before the bullpen gave up three. Jacob Misiorowski and the Brewers' relievers allowed four hits, and Tampa Bay didn't score until the ninth. Richie Palacios grounded out to second for the final out and slammed his helmet when he reached first.

"This is the best group I've ever been around, especially at this level," Rasmussen said. "To make it as far as we did, and to come up short, I mean … failure sucks."

Nick Martinez said, "It sucks, right? Because we believed with everything we had that we can win it all. Not the result we wanted, but it was a hell of a ride with a very special group of guys."

Junior Caminero, who played through the left foot injury he suffered in Game 4, said through interpreter Kevin Vera that the hardest part came after the game. "When I started going around hugging the guys, I think that was the most difficult part," he said.

More than an hour after the last out, Jonathan Aranda, the longest-tenured player in the organization, was still standing at his locker in his full jersey with the World Series patch on the shoulder, MLB.com reported. Most of his teammates had changed, and some had already gone home.