Nick Martinez will start Game 1 of the World Series for the Brewers' opponent, the Tampa Bay Rays, on Friday night in Milwaukee. CBS Sports' Dayn Perry framed the choice as a surprise, with a headline promising to explain "why Tampa Bay went with unexpected starter." Yahoo Sports and Sportsnet confirmed the assignment. The summaries we have don't include the explanation, so we can't say why the Rays made the call.

Per CBS Sports, Martinez will face Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski. The matchup looks lopsided on paper. Misiorowski went 16-5 with a 1.80 ERA and 252 strikeouts in 174.2 innings over 30 games this season. Martinez was 15-6 with a 3.10 ERA and 109 strikeouts in 180.0 innings over 31 games. Martinez has thrown a few more innings, but Misiorowski has struck out more than twice as many batters.

Martinez has pitched at Milwaukee's level of opposition before. In the season's opening week, on March 30, he went six innings against the Brewers, allowing six hits and two earned runs with no walks and three strikeouts. That was a no-decision. His season had begun badly in March, with three straight losses in which he allowed 1, 7 and 11 earned runs. After that he settled in. He gave up one earned run or fewer in several April and May starts, including eight innings against Cincinnati on April 22 and seven shutout innings at Cleveland on April 28. His season log is cut off in June, so we can't say how he finished the regular season.

Milwaukee arrives as the stronger regular-season club. The Brewers went 103-59 and won the NL Central. They come in on a five-game winning streak, and their last three games were wins over the Dodgers: 7-4 at home on Oct. 12, then 6-2 and 6-4 in Los Angeles on Oct. 14 and 15. Our archive has no finished Rays games to compare, so we can't give Tampa Bay's recent form from our own data.

Game 1 is Friday, Oct. 23, at Milwaukee. Game 2 is at Milwaukee on Saturday, Oct. 24. The series then moves to Tampa Bay for a game on Monday, Oct. 26. Reporting so far hasn't said who starts Game 2 for either side.