MILWAUKEE -- Jacob Misiorowski’s first inning began with the fastest fastball on record in the postseason.
His second inning was a long slog.
Misiorowski's third and fourth innings were more like it.
And by the fifth, his first career postseason start was over.
Regular-season success doesn’t guarantee anything in October, as the 24-year-old Brewers ace could attest after working hard for four innings against a battle-tested Padres lineup on Saturday in in Game 1 of the National League Division Series at American Family Field. The right-hander came away with a no-decision and watched from the dugout as Milwaukee earned a 3-2 win.
"Obviously not the way I wanted it to go," Misiorowski said. "Would have liked to go a little deeper for our bullpen. The job still got done. We still got a 'W' at the end of the day."
The night began with 104.8 mph heat from Misiorowski to Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr., breaking Padres closer Mason Miller’s record for the fastest pitch in the postseason during the pitch tracking era, which began in 2008. Misiorowski struck out a pair in a scoreless first that provided the first clues of the Padres’ approach against the presumptive NL Cy Young Award winner.
Fight off the fastball and wait for something softer.
San Diego fouled off eight pitches in Misiorowski’s 25-pitch first, then continued to make him work while scoring two runs in a 33-pitch second inning. The Padres scored with three straight one-out singles on cutters and sliders, and a misplayed fielder’s-choice grounder to first baseman Jake Bauers. Along the way, the Brewers stirred their bullpen for the first time.
It was not how Milwaukee drew up Game 1 after a weeklong break.
"That wasn't the plan. But his velo dropped five miles per hour almost in the second inning. He wasn't in sync," Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. "And in the second inning, his heater wasn't a strike very often. He was missing his spots and they felt like they had to go to offspeed. I would have liked to have him continue at 104 and throw it over the plate. But his pitch count was getting really, really high."
With his velocity dialed back on the fastball in the third and fourth, Misiorowski faced the minimum for those six outs and was able to keep the Padres at bay. Meanwhile, the Brewers tied the game at 2-2 on Jackson Chourio’s third-inning home run.
"We're trying to battle them," Misiorowski said. "And they were fouling [stuff] off. And you've kind of got to make an adjustment and try and go soft. And they're fouling soft off. You kind of just do something until it sticks. And that was the curveball/heater. So it worked out."
But by the end of the fourth, Misiorowski was already at 88 pitches. That was enough for Murphy and his pitching coaches, who made the call to Milwaukee’s rested bullpen for veteran right-hander Antonio Senzatela.
"I think everyone's going to be prepared for the Cy Young winner in the National League in Jacob. Everyone is going to come in with a plan and turn up their intensity whenever they're facing him," Brewers catcher William Contreras said via translator Daniel de Mondesert. "I didn't think it was a bad start by any means by him, but it wasn't his best, either. But for that reason, we're a team and we're united."
Misiorowski’s final line: Four innings, four hits, two runs, one walk and six strikeouts. Of his 88 pitches, there were 60 fastballs, 28 swings at the fastball and only four fastball whiffs. Instead, the Padres fouled off pitch after pitch. Their 30 foul balls were the most in the first four innings of a postseason game in the pitch tracking era.
"We did our job, man," Padres third baseman Manny Machado said. "We got him out early, got to the bullpen. We had a situation there, I came up with bases loaded [in the second inning]. Could have put a little dagger in it. We could have put some more runs up on the board and we didn't. And we kind of gave him a little bit more adrenaline to come out there, and he was kind of lights out after that.
"But we did a great job as a group. We put up two runs off of a great pitcher, off of the Cy Young this year. So we just came up short."