On Oct. 7, the country met Cooper Pratt holding a bottle of orange soda. Three weeks later, he is a World Series champion with a rookie record in his pocket.
The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in Game 5 on Wednesday night, Oct. 28, 2026, at Tropicana Field, to win the World Series four games to one. It is the first championship in the history of the franchise. Pratt, the 22-year-old rookie shortstop whose family tree runs through Tooele, Utah Valley University and BYU, drove in two of Milwaukee's four runs in the clincher. Across Games 4 and 5 he got a hit in six straight at-bats, a World Series record for a rookie. The night before, he hit a go-ahead home run in the 12th inning of a game the stadium scoreboard briefly thought Milwaukee had already won.
And all month, without saying much about it, he gave a lot of people their first real look at what a Latter-day Saint is.
Here's the whole story, from the batting cage in Mississippi to the apostle in Nicaragua.
| Who | Cooper Pratt, Milwaukee Brewers shortstop, 22, rookie |
| The result | Brewers beat the Rays 4-1 in the series; first title in franchise history |
| The record | Six straight hits across Games 4 and 5, a World Series rookie record (old mark: 5, Brian Doyle, 1978) |
| The swing | Go-ahead home run in the 12th inning of Game 4 |
| The Utah ties | Parents from Tooele Valley; mom played at UVU; dad played at Utah; uncle Trent Pratt coaches BYU baseball |
The World Series, game by game
Game 1, Fri., Oct. 23, in Milwaukee: Brewers 3, Rays 2. Christian Yelich's first-inning triple put Milwaukee ahead for good, and Pratt scored an insurance run in the seventh on a Jackson Chourio single. In the ninth he took a throw at second for what was called a double play, until replay showed his right foot was slightly off the bag. "I just didn't think it was enough to overturn," Pratt said. The Brewers held on anyway.
Game 2, Sat., Oct. 24, in Milwaukee: Brewers 5, Rays 4. This was the game that could have rattled a rookie. On the first ground ball of the night, from Yandy Díaz, Pratt threw the ball away and into the Brewers' dugout, and Tampa Bay scored four runs in the first inning. He walked in the fourth and scored. Sal Frelick tied it with a homer in the sixth. Then in the seventh, with Brice Turang on third, Pratt lined a single to right off Kevin Kelly, and Milwaukee never trailed again. "There was a runner on third, so I was looking to get something up," he told Fox's Tom Verducci. "Breathe, calm down and just looked for a pitch that I could handle."
Game 3, Mon., Oct. 26, in St. Petersburg: Brewers 10, Rays 1. Milwaukee scored eight runs in the fifth inning. Pratt doubled and drove in two.
Game 4, Tue., Oct. 27: Rays 4, Brewers 3, in 12 innings. The best night of Pratt's life at the plate, and the hardest loss of Milwaukee's October. He had four hits, the first rookie in World Series history with four hits in a potential clinching game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. With the score tied 2-2 in the top of the 12th, he took a 2-2 sweeper from left-hander Ian Seymour over the wall. It was the latest home run ever hit in a potential World Series clincher; the four before it all came in the 10th or 11th.
The Tropicana Field scoreboard got so excited it flashed a "World Series champions" graphic for the Brewers during his trot, even though the Rays still had their at-bats. It came down quickly, and it turned out to be bad luck. In the bottom of the 12th, a short-hopped throw put the leadoff man on, three singles tied it and loaded the bases, and pinch-hitter Ben Williamson chopped a ball over the drawn-in infield to win it.
"Probably one of the coolest swings of my life," Pratt said afterward. "I knew it was gone. It was pretty cool. I don't really remember much after that, I just know I was screaming." Then, like a veteran: "I think a loss is a loss. Losing by 10 runs is the same as losing by one run in the 12th. It's over. It's done with. … You learn from it. You come back ready to play tomorrow." Manager Pat Murphy: "He had a great night at the plate, the best of anybody at the plate. He was really locked in."
Game 5, Wed., Oct. 28: Brewers 4, Rays 1. Champions. Before the game, Ken Griffey Jr. signed a baseball for him on the field, a moment USA Today's Bob Nightengale posted on X. Then Pratt went to work. In the second inning, after Turang doubled and Frelick was hit by a pitch, he singled to center for the game's first run, his fifth straight hit, tying the rookie record. In the fifth he singled to left for hit No. 6 and the record, and scored on David Hamilton's single. In the sixth his sacrifice fly made it 4-0. Jacob Misiorowski threw 5⅔ scoreless innings, Trevor Megill got the last outs, and Milwaukee had its first title.
| Game | Date | Result | Pratt |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oct. 23 | Brewers 3, Rays 2 | Scored insurance run in 7th |
| 2 | Oct. 24 | Brewers 5, Rays 4 | Go-ahead single in 7th after a 1st-inning error |
| 3 | Oct. 26 | Brewers 10, Rays 1 | Double, 2 RBIs |
| 4 | Oct. 27 | Rays 4, Brewers 3 (12) | 4 for 5, double, go-ahead HR in 12th |
| 5 | Oct. 28 | Brewers 4, Rays 1 | 2 for 4, 2 RBIs, record 6th straight hit |
A rookie who made mistakes on the biggest stage, and kept going
The easy version of this story skips the errors. The better version includes them, because that's what made Pratt's month worth watching.
He was 22, three years out of his last high school game, playing the hardest position on the infield in front of the whole country. He threw a ball into the dugout in Game 2. He came off the bag on a double play in Game 1. Back in August, Murphy pulled him from a game against the Mets in the fifth inning after he fouled off a bunt and didn't run hard on a pop-up that fell in. Pratt didn't argue. "I don't have an excuse for it," he said. "It's inexcusable." Murphy told reporters he isn't lazy; the mistakes just can't happen in a close game.
That's the line Murphy kept coming back to in October: the kid makes mistakes, and he doesn't hide from them. After the Game 2 error and the go-ahead single, the manager said, "The game has a way of doing that to you, you know what I mean? And that speaks to Cooper, what type of individual he is. Being able to hang in there when things didn't go great for him early." And: "He's outstanding."
His teammates teased him the way you tease the youngest guy in the room. Asked before the NLCS how much Pratt had grown up this season, veteran Andrew Vaughn, sitting right next to him, said, "A lot. It took a while for him to put his sippy cup down."
The Fanta, and how a soda turned into a conversation about faith
Milwaukee clinched the National League Division Series in San Diego on Oct. 7. In the clubhouse, everyone else had champagne and beer. Pratt is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which means no alcohol, and the sparkling cider set aside for him had disappeared. So he grabbed a few glass bottles of Fanta Orange.
"They didn't have sparkling cider, so I got some Fanta," he told a Milwaukee TV station between swigs. "That Fanta tastes fantastic, man. That Fanta tastes fantastic. Tastes special, tastes special after that one." A fan's post of the clip ("Don't think it gets better than Brewers rookie Cooper Pratt celebrating with soda") went everywhere.
What happened next is the part people in Utah Valley noticed. Pratt didn't preach. He didn't make a speech. He just drank an orange soda in a room full of champagne, and people started asking why.
"I didn't expect it to blow up the way that it blew up," Pratt told the Church News. The attention, he said, led to "a bunch of people realizing and talking about my faith." His mother, Heidi, put it more simply: people notice he's "a little bit different," and "people are starting to ask questions." His uncle, BYU coach Trent Pratt, got about 20 texts praising his nephew for staying true to what he believes, some from members of his own staff who didn't know Cooper was his nephew. Latter-day Saints who'd spent October as Dodgers fans joked that they'd switched sides.
Here's why it landed, for members and nonmembers alike. Most people have been the one person at the party not drinking, for one reason or another. Watching a 22-year-old do it on national TV, grinning, with no apology and no lecture, was relatable in a way a sermon never is. And when he was asked in mid-October what he'd do if the Brewers won it all, he already had his answer: "Hopefully we win it all and I'll celebrate with Fanta."
Elder Rasband: "That makes me very proud of him"
The attention went all the way to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
In Managua, Nicaragua, around his Oct. 18 dedication of the Managua Nicaragua Temple, Elder Ronald A. Rasband told the Church News he had read the paper's profile of Pratt. "I think of Cooper Pratt," Elder Rasband said. "He's being a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ even playing shortstop for the Milwaukee Brewers, and that makes me very proud of him." He added, "I read that, and I was so proud of him. I could see the influence that his father and mother had on him."
There's a personal thread. From 1996 to 1999, Elder Rasband presided over the New York New York North Mission, and one of his missionaries was a young Elder Russell Pratt, Cooper's father. Elder Rasband remembered him as soft-spoken, powerful and a dedicated disciple of Jesus Christ. Today Russell is the bishop of the Oxford Mississippi Ward. Elder Rasband tied the son's example to a verse from the Book of Mormon, Mosiah 18:9, about standing "as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places," and to a broader point: "we are all witnesses of the Lord in whatever endeavor we are involved in."
The Utah family behind a Mississippi shortstop
Pratt was born in Hialeah, Florida, and grew up in Mississippi. But the family is Utah through and through.
- His parents, Russell and Heidi Pratt, both grew up in Tooele Valley and were married in the Salt Lake Temple.
- His father played infield at the University of Utah, grew up with a batting cage in the backyard, and later helped build "The Farm," a baseball training complex near Oxford, Mississippi, where Cooper and his brothers grew up hitting alongside other kids and their dads.
- His mother, now a family physician, played softball at Utah Valley University in Orem.
- His uncle, Trent Pratt, is BYU's head baseball coach. Four of Russell's five brothers played college baseball.
- His older brother, Ozzie, played for Uncle Trent at BYU in 2022 and made the West Coast Conference All-Freshman team.
The Pratt boys were some of the only Latter-day Saints at their school, and their mother says that taught them early that people would judge their church by them. "They've had to really decide and know that they're an example in whatever they do," Heidi told the Church News. Russell: "I don't know of a bad decision Cooper made growing up." Cooper went to early-morning seminary. He read the Book of Mormon cover to cover for the first time after the Brewers drafted him, and says he received a witness that it's true halfway through. On the road he listens to general conference talks and pays his tithing.
His advice to young athletes is eight words long: "Choose the right, do your best and work hard."
The path: sixth round to World Series champion in three years
Pratt was a 6-foot-4 shortstop at Magnolia Heights School in Senatobia, Mississippi, committed to Ole Miss and ranked in MLB Pipeline's top 100 draft prospects. Milwaukee took him in the sixth round, 182nd overall, in 2023 and paid him like a much higher pick; his mother says he prayed about it and signed.
- 2024: a Minor League Gold Glove as the best defensive shortstop in the minors, and a spot in the All-Star Futures Game.
- April 3, 2026: before playing a single big-league game, he signed an eight-year, $50 million contract with the Brewers.
- June 16, 2026: his major league debut, against Cleveland. His father drove about 700 miles to be there, and his girlfriend was there too.
- Regular season: .281 with 3 home runs, 34 RBIs and 19 stolen bases in 74 games as the everyday shortstop.
- October: the Fanta, a sweep of the two-time defending champion Dodgers in the NLCS, and a World Series ring.
His girlfriend, a returned missionary
Pratt's girlfriend, Jansyn Hollis, grew up in Mississippi and was a cheerleader at Parklane Academy in McComb, according to Heavy and Sportskeeda. Heavy reported, citing a post her mother shared, that she served an 18-month mission in the Barbados Bridgetown Mission, and People reported that she was with him at his debut in June. For a lot of Latter-day Saint fans, that detail made the story feel even more familiar: a shortstop who drinks Fanta and a girlfriend just home from the Caribbean is about as Utah County as a World Series champion gets.
Why Provo should care
Pratt never lived in Utah Valley. But his mom played ball in Orem, his uncle runs the baseball program at BYU, and his brother wore a Cougar uniform. Around here, that makes him family.
He's also the kind of story this valley produces and rarely gets credit for: a kid raised in the church, far from Utah, who never made a thing of his faith and never hid it either. When the cameras found him, he was holding an orange soda. When the biggest stage in baseball found him, he made an error, came back, and hit like no rookie in World Series history.
As Elder Rasband put it, a witness, even playing shortstop.
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Sources
The facts in this guide were checked against these sources. Hours, fees and rules change, so confirm anything time-sensitive with the source before you go. How we make Provo.com.
- What Elder Rasband appreciates about the faithful example of Milwaukee s Cooper Pratt, Church News. Checked October 28, 2026.
- Beyond the Fanta: Milwaukee shortstop Cooper Pratt s faith and journey to the big leagues, Church News. Checked October 28, 2026.
- Brewers Sign Infielder Cooper Pratt to Multi-Year Contract, Milwaukee Brewers / MLB.com. Checked October 28, 2026.
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- Cooper Pratt makes World Series history in back-to-back games, Yahoo Sports. Checked October 28, 2026.
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- Brewers left to grapple with only their second loss of the playoffs after 12th-inning unraveling, Yahoo Sports. Checked October 28, 2026.
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- Cooper Pratt put himself on the hook, then came through with the biggest hit of his career, Brewer Fanatic. Checked October 28, 2026.
- Cooper Pratt on Brewers postseason comebacks, FOX Sports. Checked October 28, 2026.
- Inexcusable: Pat Murphy sends message by pulling Cooper Pratt from game, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via Yahoo Sports. Checked October 28, 2026.
- Brewers rookie Cooper Pratt has fan moment with Ken Griffey Jr., ClutchPoints. Checked October 28, 2026.
- Andrew Vaughn Cooper Pratt comment says a lot about these Brewers, FanRecap. Checked October 28, 2026.
- How did shortstop Cooper Pratt celebrate Brewers win?, Deseret News. Checked October 28, 2026.
- Latter-day Saint shortstop celebrates Brewers win with Fanta, Yahoo Sports. Checked October 28, 2026.
- Cooper Pratt s girlfriend, Jansyn Hollis: 5 fast facts, Heavy. Checked October 28, 2026.
- 2026 MLB playoff bracket: schedule, scores, results, CBS Sports. Checked October 28, 2026.
