The 2026 World Series opens on Friday night in Milwaukee, and Game 1 is a duel of aces: the Brewers’ Jacob Misiorowski against the Rays’ Drew Rasmussen, with first pitch at 8 p.m. ET on FOX from American Family Field.
Milwaukee enters as a solid favorite, minus 155 to win the series and minus 162 for the opener. The Brewers own the best record in baseball, swept the two-time defending champion Dodgers in the NLCS, and have had a full week to set their pitching since that sweep ended on October 15. Tampa Bay, which came back from 2-1 down to beat Cleveland in six in the ALCS, has had just three days off.
Velocity against velocity
The pitching matchup is the fastest on record in one sense: Misiorowski brings the game’s elite velocity while Junior Caminero, the Rays’ young slugger, owns the highest measured bat speed in baseball at 79.4 mph. Something has to give when the two meet on Friday.
The numbers favor a pitchers’ duel. Misiorowski went 16-5 with a 1.80 ERA in the regular season; Rasmussen matched the 16-5 record with a 2.67 ERA and has three quality starts this postseason. The Game 1 total sits at a strikingly low six runs, and the Rays’ 7-3 Game 6 clincher showed Tampa Bay can win slugfests too, which makes the under an uneasy bet.
Two franchises, zero rings
Whoever wins, history gets made. The Brewers and Rays are two of five MLB clubs never to have won it all; Milwaukee is in its first World Series since 1982, Tampa Bay its third after 2008 and 2020. The Brewers took two of three from the Rays in Milwaukee back in April, and Rasmussen’s duel with Messick in the ALCS showed the Tampa ace thrives when the stakes rise.
One wrinkle favors the underdog: Milwaukee’s week off against Tampa Bay’s rhythm, the classic rest versus rust debate. Sports Illustrated’s odds breakdown notes the Brewers’ bullpen posted a 1.33 ERA through eight postseason games, the kind of number that shortens games and series alike.
