A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The World Series opens tonight, and the winner will be a team that's never won it before, the Milwaukee Brewers or the Tampa Bay Rays. NPR sports correspondent Becky Sullivan joins us now from Milwaukee, where Game 1 will be held later today. Becky, the Brewers and Rays, not the biggest names in baseball, not glamour powerhouses like the Yankees or Dodgers. How's this matchup shaping up?
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: I mean, let me put it this way, A. If you haven't been following baseball lately, I think you might look at this matchup and think, like, who wants to watch, you know, a Milwaukee-Tampa World Series? But I think if you are even, like, 1% a fan of baseball, like, the game itself, this is the best matchup you could have possibly asked for. These two teams had the best records in their respective leagues, first of all, so we've got best on best duking it out of the finals. But they also just play baseball. I mean, this is not just, like, a home runs and strikeouts kind of games. We're going to see these two teams - they're - we're going to see hits, steals, bunts, great defense, great pitching over these next four to seven games.
MARTÍNEZ: So how do we end up with these two smaller-budget teams in the World Series? I mean, they're not supposed to be able to compete, right?
SULLIVAN: I mean, yeah, it depends on who you listen to. But in fact, there's actually seven teams in baseball that spent more than the Brewers and the Rays combined on payroll, just to give you a sense of this. But yeah, I mean, these are just seen as two of the best-run operations in baseball. They spend big comparatively on things like analytics and scouting, just like this classic moneyball idea, right? Like, the teams like the Yankees and the Dodgers can just afford to spend as much as they want on expensive free agents, but the Brewers and the Rays have to find ways to succeed without doing that. So they bring out the best in players that other teams have cast off, in guys that teams are willing to trade away. They're excellent at developing prospects. And the results, you know, are evident by how far they've gotten this year.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, yeah. For a lot of people, this is a refreshing World Series because it has been dominated by large markets for a while.
SULLIVAN: Yeah, exactly like the Los Angeles Dodgers these last couple years. And in fact, there hasn't been a champion in baseball outside of the top 10 media markets in this country in more than a decade now. I should say Tampa isn't really a small-market team. They're ranked No. 11 in media market size in Major League Baseball, but Milwaukee is dead last. The most recent sort of truly small-market team to do it was the Kansas City Royals. That was back in 2015. And that team actually really changed baseball. It changed the way teams thought about the value of their bullpens, especially. And Brewers star pitcher Jacob Misiorowski, who's pitching Game 1 tonight, he grew up a Royals fan, and yesterday, he told reporters he loves being a part of a Brewers team, kind of carrying on that same philosophy.
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JACOB MISIOROWSKI: It's cool that you don't have to be the team to hit 170 home runs a game or whatever. You know, it's - you can win a baseball game so many different ways. And you can win it by stealing three bags. You can win it by hitting one home run.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. So what should we all be watching for today?
SULLIVAN: Well, Games 1 and 2 are in Milwaukee, and this is a fan base that is absolutely rabid for a World Series win. So tickets for tonight's game are going for, like, $3,000 just to get in the door. And so just around Milwaukee this week, the enthusiasm has been popping. I mean, every time I have gone somewhere for, like, a coffee or a meal, stepped into a store, everybody is wearing Brewers gear. Everybody is saying Go Brewers instead of goodbye.
You know, we've got Misiorowski on the mound. He's just 24 years old. He's expected to win the Cy Young Award. He is just an absolute flamethrower. I think he's going to be throwing 103, 104 miles an hour. But both of these teams are incredibly fun to watch at the plate. The Rays can handle it, if anyone can. They'll be working pitch counts, walks, steals. It's going to be a really good time, A.
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Becky Sullivan in Milwaukee. Becky, thanks.
SULLIVAN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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