LOS ANGELES -- All week, there was talk of the expected heat for the World Series opener, as all forecasts indicated the previous record of 94 degrees in Game 1 of the 2001 World Series in Arizona would be broken.
Well, we did it. But we didn't just break it. We shattered it during the Dodgers' 3-1 victory over the Astros in Game 1 of the World Series presented by YouTube TV.
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At 103 degrees, this was easily the hottest World Series game since records have been kept (1975). It was hottest game of the 2017 season outside Arizona. And it was the hottest game with a recorded temperature in Dodger Stadium history.
In the shade, it was merely unbearable. In the sun, it was downright brutal.
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Not that the players would admit to caring about it, of course, especially the two starters -- both who have Texas ties.
"It wasn't bad," Astros starter Dallas Keuchel said. "We've been in worse. We're having fun out there. It's the World Series; if you're going to complain about the heat, you're not going to win."
"It was hot warming up," said Clayton Kershaw, who held the Astros to one run, a homer, over seven innings of work. "But once the game started, the sun went down, it didn't feel that hot. I think not much of a breeze but I don't think it had much of an impact tonight.
"That's why I gave up the homer, it was too hot tonight," he added, laughing.
If the heat is capable of anything, it's that it can add distance to a batted ball, potentially 3.3 feet per 10 degrees of temperature. Compared to an average 77 degree night in Los Angeles, that could mean approximately seven feet more, just due to the heat.
That didn't matter for Chris Taylor's monstrous 447-foot first-inning home run off Keuchel, of course, but it's a serious factor. It was, after all, a record-setting night.