The Brewers Can't Afford to Make This Mistake in World Series Game 1

The Milwaukee Brewers will take the field at American Family Field on Friday night in a game that has been 44 years in the making.

Game 1 of the World Series will begin at 8 p.m. ET and it will be Milwaukee's first World Series game since 1982. There is going to be a lot of emotion in the building on Friday, especially if Brandon Woodruff takes the hill at some point after making the World Series roster at the last second.

Jacob Misiorowski will toe the rubber first and set the tone for Milwaukee and the Brewers arguably have to let him go to work. In the NLDS, Misiorowski tossed just four innings. In the NLCS, he tossed just 4 1/3 innings. Milwaukee clearly had success despite this, but the World Series is different. The Tampa Bay Rays are a tough opponent and are going to grind at-bats and give the club some trouble at points. If the Brewers were to have Misiorowski on an extremely short leash again, that arguably would be a mistake. Unless, of course, he comes out of the gate and completely struggles on Friday night.

The Brewers Need To Stick With Jacob Misiorowski

Milwaukee took down the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers in four games each. The Rays are tough. You can never bet on a short series. In fact, it will likely be longer than four games. If the Brewers strain the bullpen right away, it will have an impact later on, especially if the series does go long.

Misiorowski has tossed 8 1/3 total innings over the last few weeks. On Sep. 27, he took the hill in the regular season finale and pitched 5 1/3 innings. Since then, he has pitched fewer innings in almost an entire month. He's fresh, to say the least. Milwaukee got to this point in the first place thanks in large part to what he was able to do throughout the regular season. He carried this rotation and will win the Cy Young Award as a result. If he doesn't, it'd be a mistake.

In the World Series, you have to let your stars be stars. If Misiorowski is pulled early, the bullpen will likely do a very good job. But what if the series goes six or seven games? If the bullpen is stretched thin every night, sooner or later it's going to run out of steam. On Friday, Misiorowski has to get his shot to really show what he can do.