Milwaukee Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski continues to top himself in his second major-league season.
Facing the Colorado Rockies on Saturday, the rocket-throwing right-hander hit 103.7 mph on the radar gun on a third-inning pitch to Kyle Karros. That four-seam fastball was the fastest recorded from a starting pitcher since Statcast began tracking pitches in 2008.
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Reliever Aroldis Chapman threw the fastest pitch measured by Statcast, hitting 105.8 mph in 2010.
The 103.7 mph heater was one of 45 pitches Misiorowski threw that were clocked at 101 mph or more, setting an MLB record. Altogether, 52 of the right-hander’s 98 pitches were thrown at 100 mph or higher. Misiorowski finished with one unearned run and four hits allowed with eight strikeouts and three walks in the Brewers’ 7-1 win over the Rockies.
Misirowski has pitched seven innings in four of his past five starts and has allowed only one earned run over his last seven appearances. That has lowered his ERA for the season thus far to 1.50. (Amazingly, that is second in MLB to Cristopher Sánchez, indicating what a spectacular season the Philadelphia Phillies’ left-hander is having.)
Brewers manager Pat Murphy nearly prevented his ace from finishing the seventh. Going through the Rockies’ lineup for a fourth time, Misiorowski walked Karros and gave up a single to Brett Sullivan. That had Murphy ready to make a change, but Misirowski made eye contact with his manager and made it clear that he didn’t want to be pulled from the game.
The All-Star pitcher then recovered to strike out Jake McCarthy and Sterlin Thompson with seven combined pitches to get out of the inning.
He [was saying], ‘I want this, I want to stay,'” Murphy said, via MLB.com’s Manny Randhawa. “The middle of the order was up, and he wanted to finish what he started.”
Misiorowski said after the game that it was also important for him to lessen the burden on a Brewers’ bullpen that has been worked hard and thinned out due to injuries.
“I thought it was my job to get it to a point where [two relievers] could throw one inning each and make it through the game without a lot of tax on those arms,” he told MLB.com. “I want to get out of this inning for the boys.”
Misiorowski also overcame an upsetting moment in the sixth inning when he hit Tyler Freeman in the head with a 98 mph cutter, following a leadoff single by McCarthy. Freeman left the game, though walked off the field without assistance. But Misiorowski was clearly troubled by what happened.
With the win, Milwaukee improved its record to 39-23 and maintained a five-game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals for first place in the NL Central. Misirowski is now 7-2 with 116 strikeouts in 78 innings, a rate of 13.4 strikeouts per nine innings.
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