World Series: Small-market Rays and Brewers begin play on baseball's biggest stage

The Miz will try to whiz his famous fastball by Tampa Bay 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 Rays, a matchup of modest-money marvels who bumped off glamorous rivals with a throwback base-to-base style.

Everybody is going to be pretty amped up," said Kevin Cash, in his 12th season as Rays manager. "We're going to try to do everything we can to stay within ourselves and stay in the zone. As soon as you start expanding out of the zone with a guy as special and talented as Misiorowski is, it really works in his favor."

Few predicted this pairing of small-market pennant winners when the season opened in March.

The Rays were coming off a forgettable year in which they were forced to play in Tampa's Steinbrenner Field after Hurricane Milton destroyed Tropicana Field.

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After an ownership change, their longtime stadium reopened better-than-new, but they weren't considered one of four favorites in the five-team AL East. Erik Neander, the team's president of baseball operations, had a busy offseason remaking much of the roster. He addressed the team before opening day in St. Louis, telling players the procrastinators were wrong.

"They might have thought I was an idiot, but we did have a genuine belief that this team was a lot tighter with the other four [AL East] teams than certainly the public had it," Neander said.

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.

The 44-year absence has Milwaukee buzzing. The series begins with two games at Milwaukee's American Family Field, and the retractable roof is expected to be closed over a thunderous crowd, some who paid more than $3,000 per seat on secondary ticket markets.

"I know they're excited, and they'll be pretty amped up," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "[Friday] will probably be really, really loud in the other team's favor, but we'll take that all in and know that we're going to return the favor when we get back to the Trop for Game 3."

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The nation's 38th largest TV market has a long history in the Major League Baseball, going back to the Cream City's most famous 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 play a style to harkens back to those years past. 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.

“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,” Cash said. “I think we already have made bunting cool.”

They do have boppers, of course: Junior Caminero, Yandy Díaz and Jonathan Aranda.

Caminero, a two-time All-Star third baseman, is the anchor of the lineup hit .276 with 42 homers, 101 RBIs. He struggled early in the playoffs but came on strong in the Cleveland series, including a dramatic home run in Game 6 that put the game away. His 38-second, chest-pounding celebratory trot around the bases was panned as much as it was lauded.

"The game is different. It's in a different place, different state," Cash said. "I think that you don't want to cross the line of showing up the other team. Always show respect for that, but they're exciting moments, and I want our guys to enjoy them."

Díaz, the veteran designated hitter, hit .293 with 22 homers, 85 RBIs and led the league with 180 hits while making his second All-Star team. Aranda, an All-Star in 2025, hit .274 with 22 homers, 92 RBIs and a .358 on-base percentage.

The Rays, who play the 13th largest TV market, are excited to display their brand of baseball for a national audience.

“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.”

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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.

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

Martinez a surprise starter for Rays

Nick Martinez will start on the mound for Tampa Bay, which gives extra rest to ace 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 has two starts in the postseason, going 1–0 with a 3.00 ERA over 9.0 innings.

"When Nick pitches, we win. So excited to hand Nick the ballgame, and we'll go from there," Cash said.

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.”

Misiorowski likely to set a World Series velocity record

The first World Series with robot umpires could be the first with a 104-mph pitch.

Misiorowski 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.

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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,” Brewers manager Pat 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.”

The 24-year-old right-hander in his first full major-league season and a favorite to win the NL Cy Young Award.

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. Diaz is renown for never challenging a call because he feels it disrupts his concentration at the plate.

Milwaukee's batters have won 4 of 7, including a perfect 2 of 2 by Jake Bauers, a former Ray.

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

Brewers open as the moneyline favorite

Betting markets see the Rays as series underdogs. Thursday's moneyline on the FanDuel Sportsbook lists Milwaukee as a -182 favorite, with Tampa Bay at +156.

The outlook is even steeper for Friday's Martinez-Misiorowski matchup. FanDuel has Milwaukee at -196 for Game 1, while Tampa Bay enters at +164. The Brewers are also favored on the run line, with the total set at 6.5 runs.

Meantime Hard Rock Bet, Florida's only legal sportsbook, lists the Brewers as the favorite to win the series at -165, while the Rays are the underdog at +140.

As of Thursday, Hard Rock Bet noted that Floridians are putting money down on Tampa Bay, which is attracting 63% of series winner tickets.

Counties in Central Florida, along with Northeast Florida and the western Panhandle are solidly favoring the Rays. Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach betters look to be Brewers backers.

For moneyline bets, the minus number on the favorite tells how much you must bet to win $100, while the plus number on the underdog reflects the profit on a $100 bet.

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WUSF's Rick Mayer contributed to this report.