Surprising Rays-Brewers showdown to open Friday with Jacob Misiorowski's record heat

The Miz will try to whiz his famous fastball by batters on baseball's biggest stage, opening a new-look World Series between teams guaranteed to produce a first-time champion.

Jacob Misiorowski brings his record-setting heat to the mound for the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday at 8 p.m. ET when he throws the first pitch of the best-of-seven championship against the visiting Tampa Bay Rays, a matchup of modest-money marvels who bumped off glamorous rivals with a throwback base-to-base style.

"Forrest Gump, everyone," Brewers manager Pat Murphy said Thursday, introducing his ace to the assembled media.

"I'm still fresh to this and have no idea what the hell is going on," Misiorowski said a few minutes later.

Few predicted this pairing of pennant winners when the season opened March 25. The first World Series with robot umpires is the first since 1980 between teams seeking their first championship and could be the first with a 104-mile-per-hour pitch, thanks to Misiorowski, and the first to be played entirely indoors.

"I'm excited to see two great teams that play the game a little differently than maybe it's been played the last decade or so," Rays manager Kevin Cash said.

Milwaukee is in the Series for the second time after a 44-year absence - an appropriate number given that it was the jersey of the Cream City's most famous baseball player, Hank Aaron, who became a star with the Milwaukee Braves in the 1950s and ended his career with the expansion Brewers in the 1970s.

Both teams fell short in previous Series trips, the Brewers losing to St. Louis in 1982 and the Rays to Philadelphia in 2008 and to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020. Not since the Phillies beat Kansas City in 1980 have two teams met seeking their first