Jacob Misiorowski will put his triple-digit fastball to the test Friday when the Milwaukee Brewers open a three-game home series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Misiorowski (7-2, 1.50 ERA) is coming off an electric performance against the Colorado Rockies on Saturday in which he allowed just one unearned run and four hits with eight strikeouts in seven innings. However, those stats only tell part of the story, as the 24-year-old right-hander threw 45 pitches at least 101 mph and set a record for starters in the pitch-tracking era with a 103.7 mph pitch.
“It is what it is,” Misiorowski said of his intimidating velocity. “I’m going to keep going, trying to get strikeouts, and if that’s what it takes to get strikeouts, then so be it.”
Misiorowski has a 0.20 ERA in his last seven starts and has not allowed more than one run in an outing since April 25. He did surrender three walks against Colorado after issuing a total of two over his previous four starts — and that’s something manager Pat Murphy would like him to focus on against Philadelphia.
“We’ve got to get off that — the harder the better, and all that,” Murphy said. “He’s got to throw the ball in the zone and throw his other pitches in the zone. As I say often, good hitters can time up anything.”
Misiorowski faced the Phillies once as a rookie last season and gave up three runs in 4 1/3 innings, including a home run to Bryce Harper. However, the Phillies’ slugger is facing a much-improved pitcher this time around, as Misiorowski has not allowed a home run in his last nine starts.
Philadelphia will give the ball to Andrew Painter (1-7, 6.21), who is having a very different season from his counterpart Friday. The rookie right-hander has not won since his major league debut on March 31 and is coming off one of the worst outings of his young career.
Last Saturday against the Chicago White Sox, Painter yielded six runs and eight hits — including two homers — in 4 2/3 innings of a 6-3 defeat.
“You need to command the count by throwing strikes, and that, for him, comes first,” said Philadelphia pitching coach Caleb Cotham. “If you’re ahead in the count, you get to throw to more aggressive locations. He’s trying a little too hard to command perfect locations, which gets him behind, and it’s tough to work back from that on good hitters.”
The Phillies may be a bit short-handed behind Painter on Friday as Adolis Garcia is expected to miss time with a pulled muscle in his right shoulder. The veteran right fielder was injured on a throw during Wednesday’s 7-4 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
“I’d say a little bit (concerned),” interim manager Don Mattingly said after the game. “Anytime a guy knows when they’ve done something. We’ll see what happens. They’ll probably get some imaging (Thursday). We’ll find out the true severity of it and hope for the best.”
Kyle Schwarber hit his league-leading 24th home run in that win — Philadelphia’s 11th in its last 15 games — while Alec Bohm and Harper also went deep.
Meanwhile, Milwaukee had won four straight prior to dropping the last two of its road series with the Athletics this week. The Brewers held a 3-0 lead Wednesday before allowing the final four runs in a 4-3 setback in Las Vegas.
Jackson Chourio and Gary Sanchez homered in a losing cause for Milwaukee.
–Field Level Media
