World Series Game One: You Can't Spell "Wisconsin" Without "Win"

Here's a bit of a scary stat. The last time that a World Series had two teams looking to win their first championship was 1980. That was the year that the original Friday the 13th came out. 46 years later, Crystal Lake, the prequel TV series that centered on Pamela Voorhees (the main villainess of the original film), was released on Peacock. And on this same year, we have a World Series between two teams looking to win their very first championship. Coincidence? You be the judge.

In any event, the Tampa Bay Rays and the Milwaukee Brewers faced off in Game One, and American Family Field was rocking. Milwaukee had waited 44 years to get to this point, and it was finally here. Regarding pitching, Jacob Misorowski was on the mound for the Brewers against Nick Martinez for the Rays, and Miz's first pitch was a record breaker. 103.5 MPH, the fastest pitch in World Series history! The Brewers struck first very early, and fittingly, it was Christian Yelich--the first captain in the team's 58 year history--who delivered with an RBI triple. Yelich would be driven in by William Contreras, and the Brewers led 2-0 after the first inning was over.

The Brewers didn't need too much, mainly because Miz was pretty much lights out. Tampa Bay got on the board in the fourth inning with an RBI groundout by Liam Hicks. Miz's outing was done five innings, and he only gave up four hits, a walk, an earned run, and struck out three. It would be the bullpen's turn the rest of the way, and they continued the good work. Jackson Chourio added to the score in the seventh inning, an RBI single to make it 3-1. That was the score entering the ninth inning, which saw Trevor Megill on the mound.

The Rays tried to get something going. They had two men on, and then Junior Caminero walked to load the bases. Hicks appeared and hit the first pitch, assumingly for a game ending double play, but Kevin Cash challenged the play at second. The challenge was right; the foot was well off second base before the catch was made. So the only out was at first, and what appeared to be a game ending double play ended up being an RBI groundout for Hicks. 3-2 was the score, Rays had two men in scoring position, but there were two outs. Jonny DeLuca stepped up, but Megill struck him out to seal it.

The Brewers won Game One, 3-2, their first World Series game victory since winning Game Five of the Fall Classic on October 17, 1982. They had to wait just a few minutes long thanks to that challenge, but it was worth the wait. So the Brewers have now won Game One in both World Series appearances, but time will tell if they turn that into something this time. As for the Rays, they've lost Game One twice out of their three appearances. This game was quiet compared to the last few Game Ones, but it was still a good one that saw some close and exciting moments.

Back to the subject of winning Game One. This is the 122nd World Series, but it's the 118th played under a best-of-seven format (the Series played in 1903 and 1919-21 were played under a best-of-nine format). Out of the previous 117 best-of-seven Series, the Game One winner won the Series 75 times, which is 64.1% of the time. However, other than the 1982 Brewers and the 2020 Rays, guess who else is among the 42 unlucky teams? That's right: last year's Blue Jays. Even so, the Brewers have a good chance of ending up as World Champions, but it's a long Series.

Game Two is Saturday in Milwaukee.

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