The Washington Nationals and Houston Astros are set to square off in Game 1 of the 2019 World Series on Tuesday night.
Max Scherzer will get the Game 1 start for the Washington Nationals as the series will feature a number of races.
But first, let’s take a look at the importance of winning Game 1 of a World Series.
Nearly 65 percent of teams in the history of baseball who won Game 1 of the World Series went on to win the whole thing. And that percentage is even higher for home teams who win Game 1, making this game even more important for the Washington Nationals.
That percent is even higher in the last 22 season with 18 teams winning Game 1 going on to hoist the trophy.
Coincidentally, the Houston Astros were the last team to lose Game 1 of the World Series before coming back to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games in the 2017 World Series.
Whatever the numbers say, every team wants to get off to a good start in a series by winning Game 1.
These two teams have taken different paths to get here with the Astros struggling against the Rays in the ALDS going to a Game 5, and then it took six games for them to dispatch of the New York Yankees in the NLCS.
To this point, the Astros have played one game under the minimum.
The Washington Nationals certainly had to battle through the NLDS going to five games with the Los Angeles Dodgers. But they breezed through the NLCS by sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals.
Washington has the advantage offensively thus far in the postseason with a slash line of .243/.315/.382 compared to .208/.287/.358.
And the Nats have also had the edge in pitching as well with an ERA of 2.90 and a BAA of .186 compared to 3.49 and .223 put up by the Astros pitching staff.
Neither bullpen has been great as the Astros have a 4.08 bullpen ERA in the postseason compared to 4.76 by the Nationals.
Both pitching staffs have done a great job of piling up the strikeouts with a K/9 of 12.30 for the Nats and 11.02 for the Astros.
We all expect this to be a very well-pitched series, and the Game 1 matchup is something pitching nerds like myself dream of.