World Series schedule: Dodgers vs. Rays

The Dodgers survived a scare in the NLCS to get back to the World Series for the third time in four years. They’ll face the Rays in a matchup of the teams with the best two records in baseball this season.

Game 1 of the 2020 World Series is Tuesday night at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. First pitch for the opener is scheduled for 5:11 p.m. PT, with all seven games of the Fall Classic televised by Fox.

Both league championship series lasted the full seven games. The Dodgers overcame a 3-1 deficit to outlast the Braves on the National League side. In the ALCS, Tampa Bay jumped out to a 3-0 series lead over the Astros, then held on to win a hard-fought series in seven games that ended Saturday night in San Diego.

The Dodgers finished the regular season 43-17, the best record and run differential (+136) in the majors. The Rays were 40-20, the best record and run differential (+60, tied with Chicago) in the American League.

To get to the World Series, the Dodgers swept the Brewers in the wild card round and did the same to the Padres in the NLDS before the seven-game tilt with Atlanta. The Rays swept aside the Blue Jays in the wild card round, then outlasted the Yankees in a five-game ALDS before beating Houston in seven games.

In some ways this is the Andrew Friedman series, with his current team playing his old team, though he was last with the Rays in 2014. Friedman did in 2007 hire Erik Neander, who is now in his fourth season as Tampa Bay’s senior vice president of baseball operations and general manager.

The other two general managers in the LCS round — the Braves’ Alex Anthopoulos and Houston’s James Click — also worked for Friedman at some point.

“It’s cool to have a personal connection,” Friedman said last week. “In a vacuum, I’m really happy to see them having success. But now I’m to the point where I want each one of them to lose, as I’m sure they feel about me.”

The broadcast crew for the World Series is the same as the NLCS, with Joe Buck and John Smoltz on the call of the game, with reporters Ken Rosenthal and Tom Verducci on the broadcast as well.