Rays and Brewers Chase a First-Ever Title as World Series Opens Tonight
Tampa Bay and Milwaukee have combined for zero championships in franchise history — one of them ends that drought by early November.
The World Series opens Friday night at American Family Field, pitting two franchises that have never won it all against each other for the first time since 1980 — and whichever side wins, baseball gets a first-time champion.
First pitch for Game 1 between the Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers is set for 8:08 p.m. ET on Fox, with the Brewers' Jacob Misiorowski facing the Rays' Drew Rasmussen, according to Sports Illustrated's preview. Both pitchers had dominant regular seasons: Misiorowski went 16-5 with a 1.80 ERA, while Rasmussen matched that win-loss record at 16-5 with a 2.67 ERA.
Home field, but a tired road team
Milwaukee enters with home-field advantage after finishing the regular season with baseball's best record at 103-59, and sportsbooks have the Brewers as home favorites — one DraftKings listing has Milwaukee at -162 on the moneyline against Tampa Bay at +134. The Rays arrive on short rest after rallying from a 2-1 deficit in the American League Championship Series to beat the Cleveland Guardians, a comeback that left them with only three days off before facing a Brewers team that has had more time to recover, per wire-service coverage of the ALCS finish.
The pairing caps two very different paths to October. Milwaukee led the National League for much of the summer behind a pitching staff built largely through player development rather than big free-agent spending, while Tampa Bay — one of the sport's smallest-market, lowest-payroll clubs — needed comebacks in both the Division Series and Championship Series just to get here, extending a run that has become a signature of the Rays' recent postseasons.
A GUARANTEED FIRST-TIME CHAMPION, EITHER WAY
This is the eighth World Series matchup in which both participating teams have never won a championship. For the Rays, the drought dates back to the franchise's founding in 1998; for the Brewers, to 1970, with their only other Series trip coming in 1982 as an American League club. Games 1 and 2 are scheduled for Milwaukee before the series shifts to Tampa Bay for Games 3 through 5, if necessary, and back to American Family Field for a potential Games 6 and 7 — the opening act of a series guaranteed to end one long wait.