The Milwaukee Brewers have won the first game of the World Series 3-2 against the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday, October 23, at American Family Field in Milwaukee. The closer Trevor Megill fanned Jonny DeLuca with two runners on second and third in the ninth inning to close out an eventful game. With this win, the Brewers take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
It was the Brewers' first World Series game in 44 years, since they lost the 1982 Fall Classic in seven games. A sellout crowd of more than 43,000 filled the ballpark. The matchup between two small-market teams was widely expected to be close, and Game 1 delivered that.
Milwaukee secured their place in the Series after a sweep over the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. The sweep provided the team with the luxury of organizing its pitching rotation as it pleases. Tampa Bay made it to the Series by defeating their opponent in six games in the ALCS, thanks to Peralta, Caminero, and Díaz in the clinching match.
The Brewers turned to Jacob Misiorowski, the towering 6'7" right-handed pitcher who is the leading contender for the National League Cy Young Award. Misiorowski started off with a 103.5 mph delivery to Yandy Díaz, which broke the record of the fastest pitch thrown in the history of World Series games.
Misiorowski threw five innings and allowed just one run and four hits, walked one batter, and struck out three on 73 pitches.
The performance secured the first postseason victory of his career as a starter. Pat Murphy did not send Misiorowski out in the sixth and opted for a bullpen which had been performing exceptionally well throughout October.
1st inning: Christian Yelich singled in an RBI and William Contreras added an RBI to give the Brewers a 2-0 lead.
4th inning: Tampa Bay scored one run to reduce their deficit to 2-1.
7th inning: Jackson Chourio recorded an RBI base hit to provide the Brewers with some breathing space.
9th inning: Megill surrendered an unearned run before closing out the victory.
Aaron Ashby and Abner Uribe pitched five strikeouts in relief in the last three innings, setting up a 3-1 lead for Megill.
Tampa Bay almost tied the scoreline in the ninth. Liam Hicks had hit a ground ball that seemed to seal the deal on a double play, but the video review determined that Cooper Pratt's right foot of the Brewers' shortstop was off the bag when he fielded the ground ball thrown by Brice Turang, the Brewers' second baseman. Despite Hicks being out at first, the Rays were on the bases, and the score was 3-2.
Megill proceeded to strike out DeLuca swinging to seal the win. Yelich, the Brewers' captain, praised Megill for refocusing after the emotional swing. Misiorowski said he thought Pratt had the bag.
The box score illustrated how competitive the game was:
- Hits: Milwaukee 8, Tampa Bay 7.
- Key batters: Contreras and Chourio each had two hits, and Contreras picked off two base runners trying to steal. Jonathan Aranda collected three hits for the Rays.
- Errors: Neither team made any errors.
- Runners in scoring position: Rays went 0-for-6.
- Bullpen: Nick Martinez took the loss having allowed two runs in five innings, coming out of relief from opening pitcher Steven Matz.
This game 1 implies that the bullpens will be key players. The relief pitchers from Milwaukee threw three shutout innings before Megill's stumble, while the Rays had most of their success in the later innings and failed to capitalize. Milwaukee is reminiscent of their 1982 team because they led that World Series 1-0 as well, which was eventually a losing cause.
The Rays came up short in the chance to cut their deficit in the ninth inning. They hope to even things up in Game 2 against the Brewers, who have yet to lose at home in the postseason finals.
The team will move to Tampa Bay after Game 2. The rest of the games (starting time will be 8 p.m. ET, with Games 5 to 7 being played if necessary) are:
- Game 2: Saturday, October 24, in Milwaukee.
- Game 3: Monday, October 26, in Tampa Bay.
- Game 4: Tuesday, October 27, in Tampa Bay.
- Game 5: Wednesday, October 28, in Tampa Bay (if necessary).
- Game 6: Friday, October 30, in Milwaukee (if necessary).
- Game 7: Saturday, October 31, in Milwaukee (if necessary).
- Fox is broadcasting the series nationwide in the US. According to the pregame model by Sportradar, Milwaukee was favored in Game 2.
