The Opener: Martinez, WS Rosters, ABS

The World Series begins at 7 pm CT tonight. It’ll be two games in Milwaukee, then a travel day on Sunday. The series will resume with three games (if necessary) in Tampa Bay from Monday to Wednesday. Games 6 and 7 (again, if necessary) would be next Friday and Saturday in Milwaukee. 1. Rays tab Martinez for G1 start The rumblings that Tampa Bay wouldn’t start Drew Rasmussen on Friday turned out to be correct. It’ll be Nick Martinez facing off against Jacob Misiorowski tonight. The veteran righty held the Guardians to a run on two hits over 5 1/3 innings in Game 4 of the ALCS. Martinez was a steady member of the rotation in the regular season, despite underlying metrics that didn’t support his 3.10 ERA. Rasmussen will likely start Game 2 tomorrow. 2. Rosters coming out this morning World Series rosters are due soon. We should get the big reveal in the coming hours. The name to look out for is Brewers right-hander Brandon Woodruff. He’s been working his way back into playing shape after a shoulder injury. Woodruff might be more intriguing as the last man in the bullpen than someone like Kyle Harrison or Chad Patrick, neither of whom has pitched yet. The concern for Milwaukee is whether the team could replace Woodruff if he re-injures himself, since his initial injury didn’t occur in the postseason. 3. Will ABS play a factor? If you aren’t a fan of helmet taps, this is the matchup for you. Brewers hitters have challenged just seven pitches all postseason. Rays hitters haven’t challenged at all. As Mike Petriello of MLB.com points out, Tampa Bay and Milwaukee were the two worst teams by Statcast’s ABS Runs Above Average metric. Basically, these two teams got the least value out of the challenge system in the regular season. “If we get the lead after the sixth or seventh inning, we are reminding guys to save them for the catcher, for sure,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “It’s got to be kind of a run-scoring, game-changing at-bat.” Photo courtesy of Michael McLoone, Imagn Images View Comments (0)