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 Hunter Greene’s previous record for the most 100-plus mph pitches in a game during the pitch tracking era (since 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.
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. He struck out multiple batters in each of the first four innings and reached double-digit strikeouts for the third time in his last four starts in 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 the sixth, 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.