MILWAUKEE -- Jacob Misiorowski hovered around “only” 100 mph and generated fewer swings and misses than in some of his more electric starts this season. But in a matchup against one of the pitchers he admired most growing up in suburban Kansas City, Misiorowski reminded everyone that there is more to pitching than pure velocity.
Cementing his status as the frontrunner for the National League Cy Young Award with about five weeks remaining in the regular season, Misiorowski lowered his Major League-leading ERA to 1.68 by holding the Braves to four hits in six scoreless innings of Friday’s 2-1 Brewers win at American Family Field.
It was an old-school matchup of aces that had the feel of October, and the type of game to match, with Misiorowski dueling Braves ace left-hander Chris Sale in a victory that moved the Brewers to a season-high 31 games over .500 and made them the first team in the Majors to reach 80 victories.
If you like pitchers’ duels, this was for you. The contest didn’t feature an extra-base hit for either team until Michael Harris II lined a double off Misiorowski with two outs in the sixth inning.
The defenses had something to do with that.
In the fifth inning, Braves right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. picked up Luis Lara’s base hit in the right-field corner, whirled and threw a 92.3 mph dart to the infield to deny Lara a double.
And an inning later, Lara returned the favor when he made a daring, leaping catch of a Matt Olson drive to the angled section of the wall in center field. Lara crashed into that padded wall but held onto the baseball, saving a run in the process when Harris followed with his double.
Misiorowski kept the runner right there. He retired Ozzie Albies on a fly out to right field using not his signature four-seam fastball, but a cutter, and departed after 96 pitches with a 2-0 lead.
He topped out at 103.1 mph on Friday, but that pitch was hit for a single by Braves infielder Mauricio Dubón. Misiorowski’s 33 percent whiff rate was fifth-lowest of his 24 starts this season.
But he still stuck out six, which continued a streak of 20 consecutive starts with at least that many strikeouts. He’s the first pitcher in Brewers history with a streak like that, and it’s only the 18th such stretch in a single season since at least 1900. Zack Wheeler was the last to do that, going 20 straight starts with at least six strikeouts just last season for the Phillies.