The Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros are set to conduct workouts at Dodger Stadium Monday on the eve of Game 1 of the World Series, which the weather forecast predicts could be the hottest fall classic game in history.
The World Series rosters will be announced Tuesday morning.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the team will keep the same pitching rotation as they did in the NLCS with left-hander Rich Hill starting Game 2 and right-hander Yu Darvish Game 3 following the previously announced Game 1 starter, left-hander Clayton Kershaw.
Left-hander Dallas Keuchel will start Game 1 for Houston and right- hander Justin Verlander Game 2, manager A.J. Hinch said Saturday following the 4-0 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.
The temperature for the opening pitch is forecast by the National Weather Service to be in the mid-90s. The unseasonably high temperature will be caused by a combination of Santa Ana winds and a ridge of high pressure aloft, Robbie Munroe, an NWS meteorologist, told City News Service.
The hottest known World Series game was Game 1 of the 2001 World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Yankees in Phoenix on Oct. 27, 2001, when the first-pitch temperature was 94 degrees and Major League Baseball ordered the roof at then-Bank One Ballpark to be open, according to The Weather Channel, citing information from a blog by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meteorologist Alex Lamers.
Roberts said he did not think the record heat forecast for Tuesday would effect the game.
“In Los Angeles I think that our estimation of hot is still relative to being in Southern California by the coast. The guy taking the baseball for us, I don’t think that he’s concerned about a little spike in heat, so we feel good,” Roberts said, referring to Kershaw, who was raised in the Dallas area.
—City News Service