Nick Martinez Gets the Game 1 Nod in a World Series Built for Baseball Purists

The Tampa Bay Rays are handing the ball to Nick Martinez for Game 1 of the World Series, officially kicking off a Fall Classic that has television executives staring blankly into the abyss.

USA Today's Bob Nightengale broke the news Thursday that Martinez will take the mound against the Milwaukee Brewers. This is the exact kind of matchup that baseball purists claim to love, right up until they realize they have to actually watch it instead of just tweeting about competitive balance.

"Bob Nightengale reported: 'The Tampa Bay Rays are starting Nick Martinez in Game 1 of the World Series.'"

Martinez earned this spot, even if he isn't the household name casual fans expect in late October. He quietly put together a 15-6 record with a 3.10 ERA over 180 innings this season. For context, his 74 ERA- means he was 26 percent better than the league average pitcher, which is exactly the kind of spreadsheet-approved dominance the Rays build their entire franchise around.

Tampa Bay won 98 games and the AL East before dispatching the New York Yankees and Cleveland Guardians. Now they face a Brewers squad that won 103 games and just eliminated the Los Angeles Dodgers. We are getting the first World Series between two of baseball's smallest spenders in 35 years.

The betting markets are going to have a fascinating time pricing this series. You have two elite, analytically driven rosters with zero bloated superstar contracts to skew the public money. Martinez taking the ball in Game 1 sets a very specific tone for a series that will probably be decided by a middle reliever you have never heard of throwing a 99-mph sinker in the eighth inning.

Game 1 goes down Friday night in Milwaukee. Martinez will try to keep the Brewers' lineup quiet and steal home-field advantage, while the rest of us settle in for a baseball clinic that costs less combined than one Dodgers offseason meeting.