A record 15 K's in a Maddux, one at 104.5 mph: Miz pitches the game of the year

MILWAUKEE – Do you think Jacob Misiorowski was fired up to face the Phillies?

The Brewers’ fireballer started Friday’s 6-0 win at American Family Field by striking out Kyle Schwarber with a 104.5 mph fastball, the fastest pitch from a starter since pitch tracking began in 2008. Then he struck out Trea Turner at 103.5 mph and Bryce Harper at 104.1 mph. Three swinging strikeouts against three superstars, and the three fastest strikeout pitches for a starter in the pitch tracking era, including the postseason.

And he was just getting started in what was arguably the greatest start in Brewers franchise history – all on the one-year anniversary of Misiorowski’s Major League debut.

Schwarber’s single leading off the fourth inning was the only blemish on a remarkable outing in which Misiorowski set a career high with 15 strikeouts in the Brewers’ first complete-game shutout since Brandon Woodruff blanked the Marlins nearly three years ago.

Misiorowski finished what he started on 95 pitches (74 strikes) and logged the most strikeouts in a so-called Maddux – a shutout on fewer than 100 pitches – since records of pitch counts began in 1988. Tarik Skubal struck out 13 in his own Maddux last year to set that mark.

What might have inspired the extra edge on the 24-year-old Misiorowski’s already angry fastball? Remember, it was the Phillies who raised the loudest objections last July when Major League Baseball invited Misiorowski to the All-Star Game with just five starts under his belt. They felt the honor should have gone to their teammate, left-hander Cristopher Sánchez.

Now those two aces are at it again. Misiorowski went 5-0 with a 0.23 ERA in May and didn’t win NL Player of the Month honors because Sánchez pitched to a 0.00 ERA in five starts for the Phillies. Misiorowski shrugged off his runner-up finish.

“I haven’t been liked in that clubhouse,” Misiorowski said of the Phillies as June got underway, “so they’re probably happy about that.”

The Phillies weren’t happy about Friday, because it was dominance from the very first strikeout against Schwarber. Home plate umpire Chad Fairchild ruled it a foul tip that settled into catcher William Contreras’ glove, and while that was open for debate – Schwarber sure did, vehemently – it looked to clip the strike zone regardless. Either way, it was the first out of an opening inning in which Misiorowski went three up, three down with three strikeouts – and the three fastest strikeout pitches ever tracked from a starter. Misiorowski also had the old mark (103.4 mph on May 25 against the Cardinals).

With Friday’s first inning, he now holds the top 10 spots.

The fastest overall pitch in the pitch tracking era is 105.8 mph by then-Reds reliever Aroldis Chapman on Sept. 24, 2010. The hardest strikeout pitch is 105.5 mph by Angels reliever Ben Joyce on Sept. 3, 2024.

But Misiorowski wasn’t content to make his point against the Phillies with one good inning.

He went 1-2-3 in the second on nine pitches, all strikes, denied an immaculate inning by Alec Bohm’s groundout for the second out of the inning.

Through the third, Misiorowski was nine up, nine down with eight strikeouts. When Schwarber knocked a clean single leading off the fourth, Misiorowski responded by striking out Turner for the second time and getting an inning-ending double play from Harper to get back on track to facing the minimum number of hitters required.

Inning after electric inning, he stayed there.

Misiorowski had his ninth career double-digit strikeout game and sixth this season by the fifth inning. He matched his career high with his 12th strikeout in the sixth and set a new high with his 13th strikeout in the seventh. In the eighth, Misiorowski's 14th strikeout tied him with the Angels' Reid Detmers (May 24 vs. the Rangers) and the Mariners' Emerson Hancock (May 2 vs. the Royals) for MLB's single-game high this season. In the ninth, Misiorowski completed the job for the Brewers’ first complete game since Woodruff’s shutout in a 12-0 win over the Marlins on Sept. 11, 2023, in this ballpark.

Of course, he finished the night with strikeout No. 15, matching Corbin Burnes for second most in Brewers history. Only Ben Sheets (18 strikeouts against the Braves on May 16, 2004) had more.

We just missed a head-to-head matchup of these teams’ National League Cy Young Award candidates in this series. Sánchez is scheduled to start for Philadelphia on Sunday.