The Red Sox look to start their 4th Worth Series in 15 seasons on a high note when they host Clayton Kershaw (9-5, 2.73 ERA) and the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight at Fenway Park (8:09 p.m., FOX) behind Chris Sale (12-4, 2.11 ERA).

About Game 1: Well, we’re here, and what else would you expect?:

If there’s a “The turkey’s a little dry!” aspect to this otherwise perfect manifestation of our dreams, it’s that Sale hasn’t been great in a while, and the Sox could use a great Sale start tonight. I do not think the Dodgers can touch Sale when he’s at the top of his game, but that hardly makes them unique. It’s merely the biggest start of his life, by definition, by far. He won’t win the Cy Young Award this year — again — but he can do something better tonight. He can become a legend.

Kershaw has been there, done that. If he’s not the league’s best pitcher anymore, he’s still one of its 10 best well into his Hall of Fame career. He can further cement his all-time great status with a dominant World Series performance, and barring a disaster (and Kershaw doesn’t usually do disasters), any smudge the Sox get on him tonight will be removable. It’s okay to get owned by this Boston team, and he just might. He also might make them look like fools, thusly, with his historic yakker:

The lineup is largely tailored to face Kershaw, but the absence of Eduardo Núñez has the lefty Rafael Devers playing third and batting sixth. Steve Pearce is batting third, which is the other biggish news, and Sandy León is behind the plate as usual for Sale. The Dodgers roll out I guess is the ‘A’ lineup plus Matt Kemp at DH, which they can use for these shenanigans, of course. I’ll take J.D. Martinez, tysm. Justin Turner’s batting second, Manny Machado fourth and Yasiel Puig, your friend, bats eighth and plays right field.

Forecast: The WORLD SERIES. 50 degrees and a decent chance of rain, but who gives a shit?

Today’s media:

Here’s the Red Seat podcast, talking about the World Series.

Here’s me on the Sox.

Here’s Matt on the World Series storylines.

A good tweet:

LINEUPS