Cubs can’t touch Misorowski as Brewers surge

Cubs can’t – Jacob Misiorowski’s velocity turned the night at Wrigley Field into a lesson in how hard it is to hit a starter who seems to arrive already at triple digits. The Brewers’ 5-2 win moved them into first place in the NL Central for the first time in six weeks, wh

Ears still burning from the insults exchanged at Rate Field last weekend, a Sun-Times correspondent tried Tuesday to find a polite way to ask Cubs manager Craig Counsell about a Milwaukee visitor whose reputation came with a warning label.

Jacob Misiorowski doesn’t just draw attention—last season he earned a spot on the National League All-Star team even though he made just five starts. winning four of them with overpowering force. He stands 6-7. and his arm extension looks built for the kind of fastballs that seem to float past hitters before they can react.

Fans saw him again in the playoffs, when he came out of the bullpen twice to deliver victories against the Cubs. But this season, the question is sharper: what do you call a version of him rampaging through the big leagues with a level of speed and frequency that hasn’t been seen before?

“Do you regard Misiorowski as a bit of a — non-pejoratively — a freak in this game?” the correspondent asked.

Counsell’s answer came measured, almost surprised anyone would need the explanation. “I think, by definition, the starting pitcher that throws the hardest in the game is going to be called that. So. I mean. he’s throwing really hard. and he’s throwing at velocities that we haven’t seen from the starting pitcher. especially recently. So, yeah, when somebody’s doing something in the game that really hasn’t been done before, like …“ Phone down.

Even as he tried to keep his thoughts in order, the moment got interrupted—another reporter dropped her phone at his feet. The interruption didn’t change what was about to happen on the field.

Misiorowski entered Tuesday night’s game at Wrigley Field averaging 99.6 mph on his fastball. He would have cracked 100 mph if not for one start in early April. when he averaged just 98 mph while pitching with a queasy stomach. Against the Yankees on May 8 at Yankee Stadium, he topped out at 103.6 mph and threw 22 other pitches of 102 or higher.

The numbers around him have become part of the story. Stats analyst Mike Petriello of MLB.com said Misiorowski had thrown 233 pitches of 100 mph or faster entering play Tuesday, while the other major-league starting pitchers combined had thrown 149.

After the Brewers’ 5-2 win over the Cubs—which vaulted them into first place in the NL Central for the first time in six weeks, April 10—the night’s details landed like the tail end of a fastball you can’t quite see coming.

Misiorowski’s first six pitches to Nico Hoerner clocked at 101.1, 101.2, 100.2, 100.3, 100.2 and 100.9. Hoerner walked. The Cubs didn’t get a hit until Seiya Suzuki’s two-out single in the fourth inning. Dansby Swanson singled in the fifth. Hoerner followed with a dribbler in front of the plate for another single in the sixth.

That was it. The total offense against Misiorowki—who entered the day with a line that felt more like a warning than a scouting report—was summed up after he was dismissed with a 3-0 lead after six innings. He had eight more strikeouts under his belt. His opponent never found the rhythm needed to turn velocity into opportunities.

OptaStats put the accomplishment in a different category entirely: Misiorowski was the first pitcher since 1901 to have a stretch of four starts with 30-plus strikeouts, no runs allowed and no extra-base hits allowed.

Statcast has only measured velocity since 2008, but Petriello’s conclusion is sweeping. He said no starter in baseball history has ever thrown harder. Not Walter “Big Train” Johnson. Not “Bullet” Bob Feller. Not Sandy Koufax. Not Nolan Ryan. Not Randy Johnson. Not Satchel Paige.

Petriello also explained the confidence behind that certainty. writing that Misiorowski is almost certainly the hardest-throwing starter ever because nearly two decades of reliably tracked. on-the-same-scale velocity show the velocity trend steadily increasing—and there’s no reason to think it was ever at a higher level in the decades before. when strikeouts were far. far lower.

So what chance does a team have of hitting him? For the Cubs on this night, it wasn’t a dramatic mystery. It was the simple, brutal math of execution versus a pitcher who kept showing up with pitches that didn’t slow down enough to make guessing possible.

Jacob Misiorowski Cubs Brewers Wrigley Field Craig Counsell Nico Hoerner Seiya Suzuki Dansby Swanson NL Central