Jacob Misiorowski twirled a complete-game shutout with 15 strikeouts and just one hit allowed to earn the win in a 6-0 victory over the Phillies on Friday.
This was a jaw-dropping performance. There was never a moment where Misiorowski wasn’t in complete control and he was one Kyle Schwarber single away from throwing a perfect game. That inning ended with a double play so in the end, Misiorowski faced only the minimum 27 batters. He struck out eight of the first nine batters and in the first inning specifically, his fastball averaged 104 mph. Yes, 104 mph. Just completely ridiculous. It only took him 52 total pitches to reach that point too. From there, the Brewers had opened up a big lead and he was more shooting for outs rather than strikeouts, but this was still as dominant a start as we’ve seen from any pitcher in quite some time. Possibly most impressively, he mostly just leaned on that fastball. He threw it 73 percent of the time, it averaged 102 mph, and it forced 23 of his 25 total swings-and-misses. The final five he threw were all at least 103 mph and it looked like he had a few more scoreless innings in him if the game called for it. He didn’t have a single three-ball count. There were only five two-ball counts. It was the most strikeouts ever in a complete game with under 100 pitches, which is commonly known as a ‘Maddux’. He also threw the hardest pitch every recorded by a starting pitcher at 104.5 mph. It’s becoming difficult not to call him the best pitcher in baseball at this point with that kind of velocity, drastically improved command, a 1.34 ERA, and a 131 to 22 strikeout to walk ratio across 96 innings this season. Misiorowski is scheduled to send the Guardians to the buzzsaw next.