MILWAUKEE – Eighteen summers after CC Sabathia arrived in Milwaukee and electrified the city, another lefty is making a similarly good first impression.
Kyle Harrison hasn't racked up nearly as many innings as Sabathia gave the Brewers after arriving just ahead of the 2008 All-Star break, but he has been just as stingy. With six scoreless innings in Tuesday’s 6-0 win over the Cardinals at American Family Field, Harrison lowered his ERA to 1.57 – best in franchise history through a pitcher's first 10 starts.
“He’s legit,” said Brewers infielder David Hamilton, one of the players who came with Harrison from Boston in a February trade. “I’m glad he’s here with me and I was part of that trade.”
Harrison’s ERA to this point is a hair better than Sabathia’s at the same juncture, having delivered a 1.59 ERA in his first 10 Brewers starts following a franchise-altering trade from Cleveland to Milwaukee. By then, Sabathia was already a workhorse, with 79 innings and five complete games – including a pair of shutouts – already in the books before he made his 11th Brewers start.
Harrison, working in what Brewers pitching coach Chris Hook calls the “drag race” era of starting pitching, has logged 51 2/3 innings so far since arriving just as Spring Training was getting underway. But they have been quality innings.
Harrison’s ERA ranks third among Major Leaguers who have pitched at least 50 innings. His 4.7% barrel rate, per Statcast, ranks seventh. His 10.63 strikeouts per nine innings and 22.8 strikeout-to-walk percentage are in the top 10. His 29.6% strikeout rate is seventh, even after a night in which Harrison fanned only two Cardinals. His .206 opponents’ average and 1.03 WHIP are in the top 20.
“I think he pitched tonight,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “He wasn’t as crisp as he’s been, but that’s a good-hitting team, and he did great.”
Harrison had help Tuesday from one of the players who arrived with him in the trade that Boston might like to take back. Hamilton started at shortstop and provided a pair of defensive gems, ranging to his backhand to rob José Fermín of a hit in the fourth inning, then making a leaping grab of Bryan Torres’ would-be blooper in the fifth.
“I always kid him that he can’t jump,” Murphy said. “But he proved me wrong right in front of the whole world.”
That was news to Hamilton.
“I think he’s messing with you,” Hamilton said. “I’ve never heard that from him. Maybe I heard it once.”
Hamilton is unlikely to hear it again, because with those hits taken away, Harrison worked six scoreless innings on four hits, with no walks and two strikeouts. He worked with a lead after Jake Bauers homered leading off the fourth inning, and he had a big cushion after William Contreras hit a two-run double and Garrett Mitchell smashed a three-run home run in Milwaukee’s five-run fifth.
The Brewers improved to 8-2 with Harrison on the mound, including victories in each of his past seven starts. They have won the first two games of this series against St. Louis with starters Jacob Misiorowski and Harrison combining to allow one run on six hits in 13 innings, continuing a stretch of 14 wins in 18 games that began May 6 in St. Louis. That has vaulted the Brewers (32-20) to the top of the NL Central standings. The Cardinals (29-24) are the next-closest team, 3 1/2 games back.
And Harrison didn’t have his best stuff.
“Like ‘Miz’ was saying, you have some starts you feel good, some starts you don’t feel the best in,” Harrison said. “This one today was, ‘Just go out and compete.’”
What does it do for a pitcher’s confidence when he can deliver six scoreless innings against a division rival on a night he’s not executing?
“Honestly, I haven’t done it too much,” said Harrison, who came to Milwaukee with a 4.39 ERA in just shy of 200 Major League innings for the Giants and Red Sox. “I’m liking the no walks. Attacking each hitter. Those are some of the things I’ve been really priding myself on. When you have a defense like this, just go out and do that, man.”