NEW YORK -- Jacob Misiorowski maxed out at 100.9 mph on Thursday night, only the second outing this season and the fourth time in his career that he didn’t touch 101. Because he has dazzled with mind-bending velocity up to 105.5 mph, it might have seemed rather pedestrian to the 26,611 fans who came out to Citi Field on a damp and drizzly evening to see the NL Cy Young Award frontrunner pitch in person.
But for those who have been watching him all season, there were reasons to love what Misiorowski did in the Brewers’ 8-2 win over the Mets.
"He didn't have his 'A' [stuff] and he was sliding on the mound, and he still did it,” said Brewers reliever DL Hall. “That's grown-man stuff right there."
Misiorowski slipped and slid on a soft mound for six innings, but delivered his 17th quality start and emerged with his MLB-leading ERA at 1.73 after holding the Mets to two runs on two hits while backed by a lineup that scored four runs before he faced his fourth batter.
It was fitting that such an effort came against the Mets, since the last pitcher aged 24 or younger who had an ERA as low as Misiorowski's 1.73 through 25 starts in a season was Dwight Gooden. The former Met phenom had a 1.64 ERA in his first 25 starts in 1985. Gooden opened that season by allowing three earned runs or fewer in each of those 25 starts, a streak Misiorowski tied Thursday night. Only Claude Osteen (28 in 1966 with the Dodgers) had a longer streak of such starts since 1920.
Jackson Chourio led the way with four hits, four runs scored and four RBIs in a two-homer outburst, starting with a first-pitch single in the Brewers’ two-run top of the first inning and continuing with a first-pitch two-run homer in the second. But he had just as much fun watching his pitcher work.
“He knows he’s got a big fastball and has the ability to blow it by some guys,” Chourio said. “But he also has the ability to pitch and mix in the other pitches when the game is telling him to. It’s really just fascinating to be able to watch.”
For Misiorowski, it wasn’t just the damp conditions on a grey day that saw batting practice washed out by rain that presented problems. The more persistent factor for the flamethrowing righty is that he’s so tall, and thus lands farther down the mound than almost every other pitcher in the game. So instead of finding sturdy clay when his plant leg touches down, Misiorowski sometimes finds mush, and his fastball velocity creeps downward once that part of the mound begins to deteriorate.
“I think that’s a big factor of not being able to control the front side,” he said. “There’s no ‘wall’ to hit, so you’re kind of throwing with all arm.”
When that began to happen in the early innings on Thursday, Misiorowski asked for assistance from the Citi Field grounds crew before throwing his first pitch in the fourth. At one point, manager Pat Murphy went to umpire crew chief Vic Carapazza to alert them to the problem.
“The grounds crew was really working hard to try and get it figured out,” Misiorowski said. “We’d get it fixed for a batter or two and then I’d dig out just from landing and it would crumble away back to where the mud was. It was a part of the day, and it was what it was.”
Despite slightly diminished zip on his four-seam fastball, Misiorowski retired the first seven hitters he faced before issuing his first walk in the third, and he’d faced the minimum with no hits allowed after combining with first baseman Andrew Vaughn and second baseman David Hamilton for a pinballing groundout in the fourth.
But in the fifth, with his fastball down as low as 95.8 mph, Misiorowski found trouble for the first time. He walked Luis Robert Jr. to lead off the inning before falling into a 2-0 count against Jacob Young and grooving a cutter. Young lined it to right-center field for the Mets’ first hit, a run-scoring double.
Three batters later, Christopher Morel singled home another run and the Brewers lost a challenge at home plate, making it a 5-2 game.
"I think you've got to recognize that he was on point without his best stuff,” Murphy said. “He was slipping and sliding on the mound with both feet, and he still sucked it up. He wanted to go out for the sixth. We gave him the option and he said, ‘No, I want to pitch. It's the top of the order, I want to pitch.’”
It was one of Misiorowski’s best innings of the night. He retired the side on seven pitches to finish at 89 pitches as the Brewers continue to monitor his workload with October in sight. Misiorowski’s 151 innings are already a career high.
“He's obviously in late August like so many other pitchers, but I think he'll rise to the occasion the rest of the season,” Murphy said. “He did tonight. Because he didn't have 101, we think he's tired. I bet he had 101, 102 when he wanted it, but slipping and sliding, you don't risk doing that. I thought he learned a valuable pitching lesson tonight and did well.”
Said Misiorowski: “Velocity felt like a tick was down because of all of the circumstances. But it felt good. I felt like I was myself and powered through it.”
Is there any chance he’s purposely throttling down to be fresh for the finish line of the regular season?
“No. I feel just as sharp as I did Opening Day,” Misiorowski said. “I don’t think there’s anything with it. I think it’s just a part of it. The body’s tired. Everyone’s tired. It’s August going into September. It’s part of it.”