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After four baseball-less days, the World Series begins Friday night at Minute Maid Park as the Houston Astros host the Philadelphia Phillies for Game 1 of the best-of-seven series. The Astros are in the World Series for the fourth time in the last six years. The Phillies are in the Fall Classic for the first time since 2009. Here's how you can watch Game 1.

As is customary, the two clubs released their Game 1 starting lineups a few hours prior to first pitch. Here's the starting nine the NL champion Phillies will send out there:

  1. LHB Kyle Schwarber, LF
  2. RHB Rhys Hoskins, 1B
  3. RHB J.T. Realmuto, C
  4. LHB Bryce Harper, DH
  5. RHB Nick Castellanos, RF
  6. RHB Alec Bohm, 3B
  7. LHB Bryson Stott, SS
  8. RHB Jean Segura, 2B
  9. LHB Brandon Marsh, CF

    RHP Aaron Nola, SP

Standard alignment for the Phillies. Matt Vierling might get a start against a lefty (i.e. Framber Valdez in Game 2) in place of Marsh, otherwise that's the lineup Philadelphia will run out there just about every game. Reminder: Harper is dealing with an elbow injury and is unable to throw, so he's been relegated to DH duty most of the season. He has not played the field since April 16.

Now here is the starting nine for the AL champion Astros:

  1. RHB Jose Altuve, 2B
  2. RHB Jeremy Peña, SS
  3. LHB Yordan Alvarez, LF
  4. RHB Alex Bregman, 3B
  5. LHB Kyle Tucker, RF
  6. RHB Yuli Gurriel, 1B
  7. RHB Trey Mancini, DH
  8. RHB Chas McCormick, CF
  9. RHB Martín Maldonado, C

    RHP Justin Verlander, SP

Houston's top six hitters are pretty much set in stone, with Alvarez yo-yoing between left field and DH. Mancini shares time with Aledmys Díaz, though they're both right-handed hitters, so it's not a natural platoon. Díaz has historically punished lefties though, so he's likely to pinch-hit against a lefty (i.e. against Brad Hand or José Alvarado) or start against a lefty (i.e. Ranger Suárez) at some point in the series.

The Phillies ranked seventh in runs per game (4.61) and sixth in home runs (205) during the regular season. The Astros were eighth in runs per game (4.55) and fourth in homers (214). Hard to get any more evenly matched than that, at least in those two categories.