Brewers vs. Rays World Series: Jacob Misiorowski's 100 mph heat opens a Fall Classic that will crown a first-time champion

Jacob Misiorowski throws harder than any starting pitcher baseball has ever seen. On Friday night he gets the ball for Game 1 of the World Series.

The Milwaukee Brewers host the Tampa Bay Rays in a best-of-seven series that will crown a first-time champion. It is the first World Series since 1980 between two teams chasing their first title. It is also the first with robot umpires and the first that will be played entirely indoors.

"I'm still fresh to all of this and I have no idea what the hell is going on," the 24-year-old Misiorowski joked at media day Thursday, after manager Pat Murphy introduced him as "Forrest Gump, everyone."

Record heat on the biggest stage

In his first full big league season, Misiorowski threw 1,115 pitches of 100 mph or faster. The old record since tracking began in 2008 was 673. His fastest pitch this year was clocked at 105.5 mph in June.

He is likely to top the 101.1 mph record for a World Series starter and could challenge the overall Series high of 103.2 mph. But he has not finished the fifth inning in either of his two playoff starts. Hitters have fouled off more than half of their swings against him.

"He hasn't been as crisp," Murphy said. "They're obviously looking at an area. They're trying to exploit everything."

'El Presidente' gets the call for Tampa Bay

The Rays will start 36-year-old right-hander Nick Martinez, which gives extra rest to Drew Rasmussen for Game 2 and Freddy Peralta for Game 3. Teammates call Martinez "El Presidente" because he takes the team out to dinner in every road city. On Wednesday it was a Milwaukee steakhouse.

"Getting the guys together is important," Martinez said. "Creating that off-the-field chemistry translates to on the field."

Small payrolls and small ball

Both clubs rank in the bottom half of baseball payrolls, the first time that has happened in a World Series since 1991. Milwaukee is the smallest market in the majors. The Brewers swept the two-time defending champion Dodgers in the NLCS and the Rays swept the Yankees in the Division Series.

Neither team relies on the long ball. Milwaukee scored the lowest share of its runs on homers in the majors and Tampa Bay was next. The Rays struck out the fewest times of any team and led the American League in sacrifice bunts.

"I think we already have made bunting cool," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. Brewers captain Christian Yelich put it another way: "We've done a good job of being kind of chameleons."

The Brewers are back in the Series for the first time in 44 years. They lost to St. Louis in 1982. The Rays fell short in 2008 and 2020.