Brewers’ Misiorowski, Murphy talk about pitching in win over Pirates
Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski and manager Pat Murphy talk about Misiorowski’s pitching performance in a 4-2 victory over the Pirates.
Game 2 of the Milwaukee Brewers–Los Angeles Dodgers series featured a gargantuan pitching matchup at American Family Field between Brewers rookie sensation Jacob Misiorowski and Dodgers pitching legend Clayton Kershaw.
And it took Misiorowski just one batter to warm up in the Brewers’ almost playoff-like 3-1 victory in front of 38,175 fans and a national television audience.
After giving up a leadoff home run to Shohei Ohtani, Misiorowski struck out six of the first seven and 12 of the 17 hitters he faced through his first five innings of work. On many of his punchouts the Dodgers’ hitters probably wouldn’t have had a chance with an aluminum bat.
His stuff was Nolan Ryan-nasty while pitching against a future Hall of Famer with 3,000 strikeouts.
The Brewers’ young phenom was one pitch away from an immaculate inning in the second (three strikeouts on nine pitches) before giving up a single on a 1-2 offering to Dalton Rushing (Misiorowski struck out Rushing in his next at-bat).
“He’s an a pretty incredible talent. It’s hard to line everything up at times but he seems like he’s having fun,” said fellow hard-thrower Tyler Glasnow on the TBS broadcast. “A 92-mile-an-hour curveball is insane.”
Glasnow will come off the injured list and pitch against the Brewers Wednesday afternoon to attempt to help the Dodgers salvage a game in the series and end a five-game losing streak.
“It’s almost unfair when you are sitting fastball and you get a curveball like that,” TBS analyst Jeff Francoeur added in the fifth inning.
After a couple of slick defensive plays helped Misiorowski keep his sixth inning clean, the rookie’s night against the National League’s winningest team this season was finished. To say his line was impressive is an absolute understatement.
Six innings pitched, 1 run, 4 hits, 12 strikeouts, 1 walk against what is considered the best lineup in the majors.
“It was beautiful,” Hall of Fame pitcher Pedro Martinez said after the game on the TBS postgame show. “He has all the stuff you don’t like (if you are hitting).”
Kershaw admitted he didn’t know much about Misiorowski before the game, calling him the “twisted ankle guy,” in a pregame interview. He didn’t get anything twisted in his postgame comments.
“I know him now,” a classy Kershaw said. “I don’t know how you hit that, honestly.”
