MILWAUKEE - The Tampa Bay Rays will send 36-year-old Nick Martinez to the mound Friday night against the Milwaukee Brewers in World Series Game 1, a surprise decision that pushes ace Drew Rasmussen back to Game 2 and sets up a Fall Classic in which both franchises are chasing their first championship title.
Game 1 is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET at American Family Field and airs nationally on FOX and FOX Deportes, with streaming available on FOX One.
Martinez, a free-agent acquisition who became a first-time All-Star this season, joins Scott Kazmir in 2008 and Tyler Glasnow in 2020 as Rays pitchers to start a World Series opener. He has pitched only on the road this postseason, allowing just three runs on seven hits and three walks over nine innings. “It’s exciting,” Martinez said. “I think as a team, as a staff, we’re confident in whoever we call up for the mound. It fell on me, and my job is just to rack up as many outs as we can and keep us in this ballgame.”
Rasmussen, who started Game 1 in both the ALDS and ALCS, would have been available on four days’ rest but will now pitch Game 2 on five days’ rest. Twenty-three of his 30 regular-season starts this year came on more than four days of rest, a pattern that has held across all three of his postseason outings.
Opposing Martinez is Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski, a 24-year-old making a start that Milwaukee has waited 44 years to see. Misiorowski’s first pitch of the NLDS against San Diego registered 104.8 mph, the fastest postseason pitch in the pitch-tracking era dating to 2008, but the Padres fouled off 30 pitches in the first four innings to knock him out by the fifth at 88 pitches. The Dodgers were equally disciplined in NLCS Game 1, seeing 94 pitches in 4 1/3 innings, with 21 of 42 swings producing foul balls. “Obviously the Padres and Dodgers both had a good approach of just fouling stuff off,” Misiorowski said. “I bet Tampa Bay is going to do pretty much the same thing. So I think I’ve just got to stick to my strengths and pound the zone.”
Brewers manager Pat Murphy expressed confidence in his young starter despite the workload concerns. “Miz, say what you want, you didn’t see 105 [mph], whatever, but whenever he got in a jam, he got better,” Murphy said after the NLCS. “His innings are up to almost 190 this year. That’s way over, way over what he’s ever done. The kid’s bound to be a little bit tired, you know what I mean? You can’t expect him to understand what this is all about going this far and having to pitch this much this year with the pressure he’s had on him.” Misiorowski will be well-rested, however, having gone 11 full days between appearances after the Brewers finished off the Dodgers in four games.
This marks only the third World Series in the last 116 years in which neither team has previously won a championship - a circumstance last seen in 1980 when the Phillies defeated the Royals. Brewers captain Christian Yelich acknowledged the weight of the moment. “We know,” Yelich said, “that our performance directly affects people’s happiness and togetherness.”
The Brewers’ bullpen enters the Series as one of the most dominant in recent postseason memory, going 7-1 with a 1.33 ERA over 40 2/3 innings. High-leverage arms Trevor Megill, Aaron Ashby and DL Hall have combined for 23 1/3 scoreless innings with a .096 opponents’ average. For Tampa Bay, closer Bryan Baker has finished all seven of the Rays’ postseason wins, posting seven scoreless innings. History favors the Game 1 winner: that team has gone on to win the World Series 77 times, or 63.6% of the time, including 18 of the last 23 Fall Classics dating to 1997. Home teams have won the Series opener 72 of 121 times, a 59.5% clip.
Game 2 is scheduled for Saturday at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, where Rasmussen will face former Brewers ace and ALCS MVP Freddy Peralta.