HOUSTON -- How would budding Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski characterize his dazzling month of May?
“It was pretty good,” he said.
Pretty good? By grinding through seven more scoreless innings without his best stuff in Sunday’s 2-0 Brewers win over the Astros at Daikin Park, finishing a month that saw Milwaukee surge from last place to first in the National League Central, the 24-year-old right-hander lowered his ERA for the month to 0.23.
“I mean, that’s decent,” Misiorowski said.
Brewers left fielder Jake Bauers helped out with a diving catch in the second inning and a two-run homer in the fourth to back the understated Misiorowski, who supplemented his sparkling May ERA with a .109 opponents’ batting average and a 0.52 WHIP, all representing the best marks in Brewers history for any month in which a pitcher made at least four starts. And eight more strikeouts against the Astros gave Misiorowski 57 strikeouts in May, the most of any pitcher in any calendar month in franchise history.
This time, he actually appeared to break a sweat.
“I’m not sure he had his best fastball,” Bauers said. “But I mean, with stuff like his, him not having his best stuff is better than most guys in the league.”
Said Brewers closer Trevor Megill: “Dude has been out there being an absolute horse for us, and eating six-plus [innings] every time he goes out there.”
The wildest thing is that Misiorowski might be an underdog in NL Pitcher of the Month balloting, considering that Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sánchez went 4-0 without allowing a single run. He made one fewer start than Misiorowski but has the edge in innings for the month, 39 for Sánchez against 38 1/3 for Misiorowski.
But Misiorowski had the edge over Sánchez in WHIP (0.52 to 0.72), opponents’ average (.109 to .181) and strikeout rate (41.9% to 31.5%).
According to MLB researcher Sarah Langs, there have been 20 instances since at least 1900 of a pitcher allowing one or no runs in a calendar month with at least 30 innings pitched. Misiorowski and Sánchez are the only ones to do it in the same month in the same year.
“Crazy,” Megill said. “I saw a thing on Instagram about Pitcher of the Month for this month, and like eight different people are all in contention. Stuff happens, man. That’s baseball. That’s life. Sometimes, someone is a little bit better, even though you’re kind of the best one out there right now.”
Misiorowski was still the best one out there Sunday, even if he looked human for a stretch of the middle innings.
After 20 consecutive triple-digit fastballs to start the game and six up, six down, Misiorowski’s fastball velocity slipped under 100 mph beginning with the third. Jake Meyers singled to lead off the inning and Jeremy Peña singled with two outs. When Misiorowski clipped Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez with a curveball, the bases were loaded against the 24-year-old right-hander for only the third batter this season.
If there ever was a time to dial up one of Misiorowski’s signature fastballs, this was it, and that’s just what he did. After missing with a first-pitch slider to Christian Walker, Misiorowski fired a four-seamer at 102.7 mph and induced an inning-ending, rally-killing groundout to second base.
Then, in the fourth, Astros third baseman Isaac Paredes did something no opponent had accomplished since the Marlins’ Kyle Stowers on April 19 in Miami: He doubled. It was the first extra-base hit off Misiorowski in seven starts, and it turned into a serious threat when Paredes advanced on a groundout.
Again, Misiorowski escaped. This time he did it with a 94.8 mph first-pitch slider to Meyers, who flew out to right field.
“I was sliding around on that mound a little bit,” said Misiorowski, relaying a common problem for a pitcher who stands 6-foot-7 and lands farther down the mound than most any pitcher in the league. “I was trying to play on that and figure it out and didn’t really feel comfortable out there."
He figured it out by digging on the mound to find the underlying clay, and by relying on catcher Gary Sánchez’s cues about when to mix in offspeed.
“The game plan going in was heaters and see if they could hit it, and when they proved they could hit it, we found a way to get around it,” Misiorowski said. “Gary was a huge help with that, and we both figured it out.”
That’s evolution, and it’s more bad news for Brewers opponents.
“Did he have his best, most crisp stuff? No,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “But he gave us seven innings, and probably could have given us more.”
“You have to give credit where it’s due,” said Houston leadoff man Peña. “He had a great outing. His stuff is electric.”
Paredes’ double was the closest the Astros would come to touching a pitcher putting the finishing touches on one of the most dominant months for a starter in Brewers franchise history. Misiorowski retired the final 11 batters he faced before Abner Uribe took over to begin the eighth.
When Megill locked down his second save of the series, the Brewers had retired 17 in a row to finish a 19-7 month that saw them vault from last place on May 4 to first place by May 19, along with a 4 1/2-game lead in the National League Central (pending the outcome of Sunday night’s Cubs-Cardinals matchup) by month’s end.
“I don’t think we’re playing particularly well, I really don’t,” Murphy said. “But I trust these guys. They’re doing a lot of good things.”