The World Series starts tonight in Los Angeles between the Houston Astros, American League Champions, and the L.A Dodgers, winners of the National League pennant.
Game 1 features a pitching matchup between aces Dallas Keuchel of the Astros (A.L Cy Young winner in 2015) and Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers (N.L Cy Young winner in 2011, 2013 and 2014). Both pitchers will try to help their teams draw first blood in this battle to the best of seven.
Kershaw is set to take the mound on regular rest for the Dodgers after closing out the Cubs in the NLCS with six innings of one-run ball.
Current Astros players have a career .235 batting average against Kershaw, with zero home runs in 81 at-bats.
The number one thing that separates Kershaw from the rest is the rotation he can create with his four-seam fastball and his curveball. He gets people to chase pitches with a tough deceiving delivery that gets the timing of opposing batters off. Add to that his nasty slider-cutter type pitch and he’s more than ready to take on the Astros powerful lineup.
Keuchel will get the ball for Houston in game 1. He holds a career 1.78 postseason ERA and remains confident heading into his first World Series start.
He will try to keep his balls in the lower part of the strike zone to try to neutralize the L.A Dodgers firepower with his great rhythm, nasty breaking pitches, and a relentless approach; a recipe he used to cool off the Yankees in game 2 of the ALCS.
The Dodgers and Astros will seek to end two of the longest droughts in World Series history. It will be the first time both teams meet in a Fall Classic and if both teams play to their potential this series could go the distance and take seven games to decide.
After 55 seasons of existence, the Astros will be looking for their first World Series title with a group of stars that include Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, Justin Verlander, Yuli Gurriel, George Springer, Evan Gattis and Keuchel among others.
Their only World Series action was in 2005 when they played in the National League and were swept by the Chicago White Sox.
The Dodgers have played in 19 World Series and won six titles. Since 1959, when they moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles they’ve won five titles, but the last came in 1988 when they defeated the Oakland Athletics 4-1 led by legendary manager Tommy LaSorda.
Now, the Dodgers will try to win their seventh World Series trophy led by players such as Justin Turner, Cody Bellinger, closer Kenley Jansen, starting pitcher Yu Darvish, Chris Taylor, Yasiel Puig, Enrique “Kike” Hernandez, Yasmani Grandal, Kershaw and Corey Seager, who rejoins the lineup after missing the entire NLCS with a back injury.
