Here’s the next challenge for ascendant Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski: Conquer Coors Field.
Misiorowski is scheduled to make his first career start at the Rockies’ mile-high home on Saturday, and he’s not alone. All three of Milwaukee’s probable starters in the series -- Brandon Sproat, Misiorowski and Shane Drohan -- will experience for the first time the altitude and seemingly endless outfield that make Colorado one of pitchers’ toughest stops in the big leagues.
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“For me, altitude shouldn't be a big factor in my game,” said Misiorowski, coming off a spectacular May in which he went 5-0 with a 0.23 ERA -- and somehow still lost out on NL Pitcher of the Month honors. “OK, it makes my curveball a little worse. Instead of 12 inches of drop, maybe I get eight. It will still work.
“For me, it’s not that big of a deal to go up there. Maybe I give up one nuke because of the altitude. It’s going to happen. The velocity might even pick up.”
The trick is maintaining that velocity. It was evident that Misiorowski was already preparing for the elements on Thursday as took sips of his electrolyte drink.
Few pitchers come as well equipped for Coors Field on paper as Misiorowski, who relies not on movement but otherworldly velocity and extension, the combination of which makes his 103 mph fastballs appear even faster from the batter’s box.
“He doesn’t know how good he’s got it,” said fellow starter Brandon Woodruff. “I tell him that all the time.”
Woodruff also flirted with triple digits pre-shoulder surgery, and he has experienced all the highs and lows that Coors Field has to offer. He made his third career start there in 2017 and pitched into the fifth inning while allowing only one run. Then he had one of the worst starts of his career there in 2018, allowing seven earned runs on as many hits (nine) as he recorded outs. In 2021, a streak of 12 straight starts with two or fewer earned runs came to a screeching halt at Coors with a five-run first inning. Then, in 2022, he allowed one earned run on two hits in seven brilliant innings there.
The lesson is you never know what you’re going to get.
And it’s best to just focus on locating.
“Just try not to make a big deal of it,” said Milwaukee pitching coordinator Jim Henderson, who threw two scoreless innings at Coors -- but also absorbed blown saves in two other outings there for the Brewers and Mets.
“Just go execute the crap out of it and know stuff may happen,” Henderson said. “Let’s just stay resilient and keep going.”
Henderson pointed out that it’s not just Colorado that will challenge Brewers pitchers on this trip. Their next stop is Las Vegas for three games against the A’s at that club’s Triple-A home -- an extremely hitter-friendly venue.
“Hey, this is what we’ve got for the next week,” Henderson said. “There’s no backing down from it.”
The Brewers appear equipped for that, too. They went into Thursday’s series finale against the Giants with MLB’s second-best team ERA (3.11), third-best average against (.217) and third-best WHIP (1.18).
Misiorowski has led the way on all of that, especially during a nearly perfect month of May in which he set a Brewers franchise record for any single month with 57 strikeouts and allowed only one run in six starts -- on a run-scoring groundout, at that.
He said all the right things about losing the NL Pitcher of the Month vote to Philadelphia left-hander Cristopher Sánchez, who didn’t allow a single run in five May starts but trailed Misiorowski in most other categories, including WHIP, average against and strikeouts. In any other month, Misiorowski would have won, but of the nine pitchers since 1900 who have made at least five starts and allowed one run or fewer over the course of a single month, Misiorowski and Sánchez happened to be the first two to do it in the same month.
“Obviously, I want to win, but it’s not like I’m [mad] about it,” Misiorowski said. “You can’t worry about it. Dude had a good month.”
Misiorowski doesn’t know Sánchez, but the two have some history. Remember how the Phillies were upset that MLB asked Misiorowski, after just five career starts, to go to last year’s All-Star Game over Sánchez?
“I haven’t been liked in that clubhouse,” Misiorowski said with a smile. “So they’re probably happy about this one.”