MILWAUKEE -- Jacob Misiorowski’s vow to join the 105 mph club will have to wait for another outing.
On Monday against the Cardinals, 103 mph was more than enough to continue rewriting the record books for power pitching.
The big right-hander hit 103 mph or more an unprecedented eight times in the first inning and hit triple digits 57 times on the day -- 10 more than any other pitcher since the pitch tracking era began in 2008. Misiorowski tied his career high with 12 strikeouts to become the first pitcher in MLB to reach 100 strikeouts this season. He didn’t allow a hit until the sixth, when he finally allowed his first run of what has been a dazzling month of May.
And when he induced a swinging strike three on his 96th and final pitch in the seventh, lowering his season ERA to 1.83 after 11 must-see starts, Misiorowski let out a big exhale and earned a standing ovation from 35,695 fans at American Family Field in an eventual 5-1 Memorial Day win.
The only one who didn’t seem particularly impressed was Misiorowski himself.
“That’s what I do,” he said. “I throw hard.”
Christian Yelich’s two-run home run capped Milwaukee’s three-run first inning against Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore, and Misiorowski took things from there. After a leadoff walk, he retired the next 15 batters in order with 10 strikeouts, giving him double-digit strikeouts for the third time in his last four starts by the fifth, when a lunging grab from third baseman Luis Rengifo kept this latest bid for a no-hitter alive into the sixth.
The Cardinals finally got something going against Misiorowski in that sixth inning, when Pedro Pagés dumped a soft single into shallow right field and eventually scored on Iván Herrera’s groundout, snapping Misiorowski’s scoreless streak at 29 1/3 innings.
Covering his first five starts of May, it was the third-longest single-season scoreless streak for a starter in Brewers franchise history, just shy of Freddy Peralta’s 30 innings last year and Teddy Higuera’s club-record 32-inning scoreless stretch for “Team Streak” in 1987, a year that began with an American League-record 13-game winning streak and also featured Paul Molitor’s 39-game hitting streak.
“That’s really special,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “It’s pitching, too. Not just throwing. Pitching. He’s worked hard. He’s earned it.”
The scary thing for opponents like the Cardinals, who went hitless over five-plus innings in his Major League debut last June, is that Misiorowski appears to be getting stronger with every start.
“We’re seeing it happen before our eyes, so you start believing it,” said Brewers Major League pitching coordinator Jim Henderson. “Two or three weeks into the season, there was a bullpen between starts when he was touching 99 mph. We were like, ‘Jesus.’”
It all started in his legs. Misiorowski spent the winter focused on adding lower body strength, and the coaches joked that he looked like he needed to size up to bigger jeans.
Turns out, it was no joke.
“He did, I’m pretty sure,” Henderson said. “Two sizes.”
Said Misiorowski: “In the offseason, that was the focus, and I think I came out better on the other side. I feel stronger, but nothing crazy.”
Nothing crazy? Misiorowski is doing things we haven’t seen before from a starting pitcher since stadiums were standardized to accurately track pitch velocity in 2008.
That’s true wherever you set the threshold for miles per hour:
• He threw 14 more pitches at 100 mph and above than in any of his previous Major League outings, and 10 more than anyone had under pitch tracking.
Jacob Misiorowski: 57, 5/25/26
Hunter Greene: 47, 9/17/22
Hunter Greene: 44, 3/30/23
Jacob Misiorowski: 43, 5/1/26
Jacob Misiorowski: 41, 5/8/26
Jacob Misiorowski: 40, 5/13/26
Jacob Misiorowski: 39, 4/25/26
Hunter Greene: 39, 4/16/22
Hunter Greene: 38, 7/26/22
Hunter Greene: 38, 7/9/22
• Misiorowski threw 40 pitches against the Cardinals at 101 mph and above. Only three other starters have that many in their careers under pitch tracking, including the playoffs.
Jacob Misiorowski: 237
Hunter Greene: 171
Jacob deGrom: 54
Justin Verlander: 52
• Misiorowski threw 22 pitches against the Cardinals at 102 mph and above, giving him 73 pitches at 102-plus in his career, including 67 this season, 61 this month and 55 in his past three starts alone. All of the other starting pitchers in baseball have combined for 40 pitches at 102-plus in all of the regular seasons and postseasons since 2008.
• When you push the threshold to 103 mph, Misiorowski is truly in a class of his own. From 2008-2025, including postseasons, Jordan Hicks and Justin Verlander were the only starting pitchers to throw 103-plus. Hicks threw two pitches that hard, both as an opener, not a traditional starter. Verlander threw one. Misiorowski has thrown 22 pitches that hard, including nine on Monday alone, starting with his first six pitches of the day.
By day’s end his four-seam fastball averaged 101.1 mph -- a jump of 1.4 mph over his season average.
“I think it’s one of those things where you don’t know you can do it until you do it,” Henderson said. “That Yankees game was juicy. There was a lot of energy in the stadium, and you’re facing a powerhouse team, and I think the adrenaline helped him get deep into that outing. Now he knows what that feels like. He knows when he can empty the tank.
“It’s like, ‘Oh, I know I can do that now.’ You’ve pushed yourself through that threshold.”
Misiorowski doesn’t intend to go back.
“I feel like that’s where it should be every day,” he said. “That’s where I’m at. That’s just my normal.”