The 122nd World Series begins Friday night at American Family Field in Milwaukee. The National League-best Milwaukee Brewers will host the American League-best Tampa Bay Rays, and one way or the other, baseball will have a first-time champion this season. Neither the Brewers (established 1970) nor Rays (established 1998) have ever won a World Series.
"The 2020 World Series was kind of a blur. The whole postseason was a blur. I'm a heck of a lot happier we're in this situation now coming out on the other side of that," Rays manager Kevin Cash said on Thursday.
"Those games, they were intense, there was a lot of anxiety in them, but I felt that same intensity and anxiety in the ALCS just two or three days ago. Excited to go and watch our guys do their thing in the next week to ten days." Historically, the winner of Game 1 of a best-of-seven has gone on to win the series 65% of the time. It's 64% in the World Series, so basically identical.
Just last year, though, the Los Angeles Dodgers lost Game 1 of the World Series at home, then rallied to beat the Toronto Blue Jays in seven games. Winning Game 1 certainly gives you a leg up, but it does not mean the series is over. Here now are three key questions heading into Game 1 on Friday night.
Jacob Misiorowski, the likely NL Cy Young winner, has not been himself this postseason. He failed to complete five innings in either of his two starts, not necessarily because of ineffectiveness, but because of high pitch counts. Misiorowski threw 88 pitches en route to allowing two runs in four innings in Game 1 of the NLDS.
In Game 1 of the NLCS, it was one run on 94 pitches in 4 ⅓ innings. Misiorowski's high-octane fastball has played down this postseason. The velocity is plenty good.
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