Morosi: Misiorowski likely to pitch next series

The Brewers, at 59-37, are in no jeopardy of losing a playoff spot at this point. Misiorowski is already within 31 innings of his total from last year in the minors, majors and postseason. We don’t want to read too much into this — all we know for sure is that Misiorowski isn’t expected to start in the first series after the break, but it’s definitely possible that Misiorowski is managed carefully down the stretch of the season and has lower pitch and inning limits ahead of the postseason. McCalvy writes that Misiorowski is expected to have “an extended breather over the All-Star break and into the second half.” We knew about the All-Star break, but it’s worth noting that based on that quote he may miss some time early in the second half of the season as well.

Misiorowski has made the leap from hard-throwing phenom to top-of-the-rotation force within the last few months, posting a microscopic 1.62 ERA, 0.76 WHIP and 167/27 K/BB ratio across 111 innings over 18 first-half starts. The 24-year-old flame-thrower won’t reach free agency until 2032, but with more teams prioritizing long-term extensions with their top young players, it feels a bit surprising that there haven’t even been preliminary talks yet. Misiorowski is slated to resume throwing this week after being scratched from his final first-half outing due to fatigue. It doesn’t appear to be a serious concern, but fantasy managers should continue monitoring his status coming out of the All-Star break.

The Brewers plan to have their star right-hander resume throwing on Tuesday and make his first start of the second half in the second series against the Mets. It still sounds like it’s just fatigue that Misiorowski is working through and there are no plans to place him on the injured list, though fantasy managers should monitor his status closely during and coming out of the All-Star break just to be sure.

A conspiracy theorist might wonder if this was the plan all along — it would have been Misiorowski’s first time ever making consecutive starts on four days’ rest — and the Brewers only scheduled him to pitch Sunday to get him out of an All-Star appearance. But while that’d be good news, we’ll go with the official line that he’s just dealing with some fatigue. There’s nothing yet to suggest he’ll be going on the injured list.

It’s a colossal bummer for baseball fans hoping to see Misiorowski hurling triple-digit heaters during next week’s Midsummer Classic, but this was always the expected outcome here. Skenes, Misorowski and Meyer are all taking the ball for their respective club’s first-half finales on Sunday, which means there was zero chance they would be able to pitch in the All-Star Game just three days later. Luzardo, Ashcraft and O’Brien are headed to the game for the first time in their respective careers. It’s likely going to be Shohei Ohtani taking the ball to start for the National League based on how things are lining up from a schedule standpoint.

Jordan Walker hit a two-run homer in the first and Iván Herrera followed with a solo shot in the third, but Misiorowski completely shut the Cardinals down afterwards. He allowed just one hit besides the homers, and he walked none. It’s his eighth 10-strikeout game of the season. Dylan Cease is alone in second place there with five such games. Misiorowski has 167 strikeouts on the season, which is 30 more than Cease and Cristopher Sánchez in second place. He’s the seventh starting pitcher to reach 10 wins this season. No starter has more, though Aaron Ashby has 12 in relief. Misiorowski is slated to pitch again Sunday against the Pirates.

The earned run came on a Sal Stewart homer off a 102.3-mph fastball, the fastest pitch that anyone has hit for a homer this year. The unearned runs came in the fourth after Jake Bauers error to start the frame; Misiorowski gave up two singles and a 358-foot homer to Jake Trevino afterwards. Misiorowski still struck out 10 for the seventh time this year. It’s the first time he’s given up more than three runs, but his 1.47 ERA barely changed because of the unearned runs. He’s expected to start Tuesday against the Cardinals and Sunday against the Pirates next week, which would take him out of play for the All-Star Game.

Misiorowski is in line to take the ball for Milwaukee’s first-half finale, which would ostensibly eliminate any chance of him pitching in the Midsummer Classic. The hard-throwing 24-year-old rising star was among the favorites to start the All-Star Game along with Dodgers icon Shohei Ohtani and Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez.

It’s going to be a tough decision for the National League skipper since Brewers flamethrower Jacob Misiorowski and Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez both are deserving candidates to start the Midsummer Classic. There’s no scenario where Ohtani will be able to pitch in relief since he’s in the lineup at DH and won’t be able to warm up during the game. Simply put, Ohtani is either going to start the game or not pitch at all. There might not be a decision either way for a couple weeks.

Misiorowski hit 105.5 mph on a first-inning heater to Pete Crow-Armstrong and didn’t allow a hit until Seiya Suzuki connected for a fifth-inning solo homer. That would be the lone run Misiorowski would allow in this one as he authored another masterful performance despite handing out four free passes. He did have to wiggle his way out of his final inning of work when he loaded the bases with two outs, but he was able to strike out Ian Happ to end the threat. The latest gem wraps up a dominant June for Misiorowski, who finishes with a 3-1 record, 0.82 ERA and 0.64 WHIP. He’s scheduled to make his next start on Wednesday at home against the Reds.