Jacob Misiorowski Led MLB in ERA and Strikeouts. He Has Not Finished Five Innings in October.
The Milwaukee Brewers made it official on Tuesday: Jacob Misiorowski starts Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night. Bob Nightengale of USA Today, who reported it first, called it zero surprise, and he is right. It was also the only choice, which is not quite the same as being a comfortable one.
Misiorowski just finished one of the best pitching seasons anybody has had this decade. He went 16-5 with a 1.80 ERA over 30 starts and 174 2/3 innings, struck out 252, walked 44, and posted a 0.802 WHIP. He led the major leagues in ERA, strikeouts, WHIP and opponents’ batting average. Sarah Langs of MLB.com noted that his .157 mark against would be the lowest in any qualified season in history, below Pedro Martinez’s .167 in 2000.
He is 24 years old. He threw the fastest pitch by a starter in recorded major league history at 105.5 mph in June, and in July he threw 66 pitches of at least 100 mph in a single game.
And yet
He has made two postseason starts and finished neither one. In Game 1 of the NLDS he opened with a 104.8 mph pitch, the fastest in the tracking era’s postseason history, and was gone before the fifth inning after 88 pitches. In Game 1 of the NLCS he got 4 1/3 innings on 94 pitches and gave up a run in a 2-1 win. That is 8 1/3 innings across two outings with a 3.24 ERA and a 1.560 WHIP.
His manager has not pretended otherwise. “Miz, say what you want, you didn’t see 105, whatever, but whenever he got in a jam, he got better,” Pat Murphy said after the NLCS opener, before adding the part that matters: “The kid’s bound to be a little bit tired, you know what I mean?” Murphy has also said of him, “He’s not a finished product, by any stretch.”
No Milwaukee starter has pitched past the fifth inning this entire postseason. The Brewers have won anyway, because their bullpen has allowed six earned runs in 40 2/3 October innings, and the quartet of Trevor Megill, Abner Uribe, Aaron Ashby and DL Hall has a 0.61 ERA across 29 2/3 of them.
The team behind him is the best in baseball
Milwaukee went 103-59, the first 100-win season in franchise history and the best record in the sport, which is how they own home field for the entire World Series. They swept the Dodgers in the NLCS. “They may have a bunch of Hall of Famers, but we have a bunch of gamers,” Murphy said afterward. “And the gamers won this week.”
Murphy is 67, has managed the club since 2024, and has won the last two National League Manager of the Year awards. Misiorowski is the heavy favorite for the Cy Young, though the award has not been handed out.
Tampa Bay has not named anybody
The Rays, 98-64 and the better story if you like underdogs, have stayed quiet. MLB.com has Drew Rasmussen as the probable Game 1 starter on four days’ rest, which would be his third consecutive Game 1 this October. Yahoo’s preview argues the opposite, that his ALCS workload makes Nick Martinez the likelier Friday arm with Rasmussen going Saturday.
Rasmussen’s own answer was the most Rays thing imaginable: “Throw a bullpen and figure out what game I get to start.” He has a 1.29 ERA over 21 postseason innings with 23 strikeouts and three walks. Milwaukee traded him away in 2021.
Game 1 is Friday at 8 p.m. ET at American Family Field on FOX, the first World Series game ever played in that building and Milwaukee’s first since Game 5 of the 1982 Series at County Stadium. Neither franchise has ever won a title. One of them will in about 10 days.
Misiorowski will throw something near 102 in the first inning and the building will come apart. The question is who is pitching the sixth.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
