World Series preview: Surprising Brewers-Rays matchup will open with Jacob Misiorowski’s record heat

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Miz will try to whiz his famous fastball by batters on baseball’s biggest stage, opening a new-look World Series between teams guaranteed to produce a first-time champion.

Jacob Misiorowski brings his record-setting heat to the mound for the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night when he throws the first pitch of the best-of-seven championship against the Tampa Bay Rays, a matchup of modest-money marvels who bumped off glamorous rivals with a throwback base-to-base style.

“Forrest Gump, everyone,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said Thursday, introducing his ace to the assembled media.

“I’m still fresh to all of this and I have no idea what the hell is going on,” Misiorowski said a few minutes later.

Few predicted this pairing of pennant winners when the season opened March 25. The first World Series with robot umpires is the first since 1980 between teams seeking their first championship and also could be the first with a 104 mph pitch — thanks to Misiorowski — and the first to be played totally indoors.

Milwaukee is in the Series for the second time after a 44-year absence — an appropriate number given that it was the jersey of the Cream City’s most famous baseball player, Hank Aaron, who became a star with the Milwaukee Braves in the 1950s and ended his career with the expansion Brewers in the 1970s.

Both teams fell short in previous Series trips, the Brewers losing to St. Louis in 1982 and the Rays to Philadelphia in 2008 and to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020. Not since the Phillies beat Kansas City in 1980 have two teams met seeking their first title. The time before that was in 1920.

Rays players are excited to display their brand of baseball.

“We love watching those guys cause chaos,” Tampa Bay pitcher Steven Matz said of his team’s bunters and speedsters. “Every time it’s first and third and someone lays down a bunt, we are just dying laughing in the bullpen.”

Misiorowski is likely to set a World Series velocity record

Misiorowski, a 24-year-old right-hander in his first full major league season, is a starting pitcher like no other. He threw 1,115 pitches of 100 mph or higher this year — shattering the old high of 673 since tracking began in 2008, by Jordan Hicks in 2018.

His fastest pitch was 105.5 mph to the Chicago Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong on June 27, and he appears likely to break the 101.1 mph record for a Series starter by the New York Mets’ Noah Syndergaard in 2015 and possibly the overall Series high of 103.2 mph by Cubs reliever Aroldis Chapman to Cleveland’s Coco Crisp in Game 2 of 2016.

Misiorowski didn’t finish the fifth inning in either of his first two postseason starts this year. Batters have swung at 94 of his 182 postseason pitches and fouled off 51 — 28% of pitches and 54% of swings.

“He hasn’t been as crisp,” Murphy said. “They’re obviously looking at an area. They’re trying to exploit everything. He’s exposed, like all these guys get at some point.”

Martinez a surprise starter for Rays

Nick Martinez will start for Tampa Bay, which gives extra rest to Drew Rasmussen ahead of Game 2 and Freddy Peralta before Game 3.

A 36-year-old right-hander with his fourth major league team, Martinez took the Rays to dinner Wednesday at Carnevor, a top Milwaukee steakhouse. He invites teammates, who have nicknamed him “El Presidente,” to a restaurant in every road city.

“To when I first got to the league, I’ve been around guys that knew how to control a clubhouse and for lack of a better term, knew how to throw a party,” Martinez said. “Getting the guys together is important. Creating that off-the-field chemistry translates to on the field.”

Brewers and Rays have throwback offenses

In an age where power bats usually rule, Milwaukee scored a major league-low 32.1% of its runs on homers and Tampa Bay was second-lowest at 34.4%, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Brewers captain Christian Yelich says “we’ve done a good job of being kind of chameleons.”

“It’s cool that you don’t have to be the team to hit 170 home runs a game or whatever,” Misiorowski said. “You can win a baseball game so many different ways.”

Rays batters had the fewest strikeouts among the 30 teams and Tampa Bay’s 45 sacrifice bunts were the most among American League teams since 2015.

“If we had a club that was built with a bunch of boppers, we probably wouldn’t be bunting and stealing bases,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “I think we already have made bunting cool.”

After back-to-back Dodgers titles, MLB will have a small-payroll champion

This marks the first time since 1991 that both Series teams are in the bottom half of payrolls: the Brewers were 19th as of Aug. 31 and the Rays 25th. Milwaukee, MLB’s smallest market, could become the first small-market champion since Kansas City in 2015. The Rays rank 15th in market size.

To reach the Series, the Brewers swept the deep-pocketed, two-time champion Dodgers in the NL Championship Series and the Rays swept the New York Yankees in an AL Division Series.

Yelich, the highest-paid player in the Series, was 44th overall in the majors on opening day. Yandy Díaz, who earns most among the Rays, ranked 154th.

Robot umps are changing games

Batters have succeeded on 63% of challenges during the postseason in the first year of the Automated Ball-Strike System, winning 40 of 63 appeals to the robot umps. That is up from 49% during the regular season.

Catchers’ 58% success rate in the playoffs (58 of 99) is down a tick from 59% during the regular season and pitchers are 1 for 1 — Tampa Bay’s Griffin Jax made the only challenge. The 60% overall rate is up from 54% in the regular season.

Tampa Bay’s batters have yet to make a postseason challenge. Milwaukee’s have won 4 of 7, including a perfect 2 for 2 by Jake Bauers.

Brewers catcher William Contreras has won 60% (12 of 20) and Rays catcher Liam Hicks 67% (8 of 12).

Rest vs. rust: Extra time off hasn’t been helpful in recent years

Milwaukee will have had seven days off going into the opener.

While teams with less rest are 15-15 in the Series since Wild Card Era started in 1995, they are 12-4 since 2009.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Ronald Blum, The Associated Press