For all that Jacob Misiorowski has accomplished early in his major league career, earning a win at Dodger Stadium has not been one of them.
Misiorowski (11-5, 1.76 ERA) will get another chance to tell his LA story in the third game of a four-game road series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday.
A Milwaukee victory would prevent the Dodgers from tying the Brewers atop the National League standings. Los Angeles moved back within a game Friday with a 3-1 victory after a 5-4 loss Thursday in the series opener.
It is not as if Misiorowski, now 24, did not pitch well in Game 3 of last season’s National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium. He gave up just two runs (one earned) on three hits over five innings with nine strikeouts while following opener Aaron Ashby in Misiorowski’s lone Dodger Stadium appearance to date.
But a lack of run support left Misiorowski with a 3-1 loss, and Los Angeles finished a sweep one game later on the way to a second consecutive World Series title.
Now it is the Brewers who control their fate with the best record in the National League, while Misiorowski is the heavy favorite to win the NL Cy Young Award. He has 204 strikeouts in 133 innings.
“That was the real turning point last year,” Misiorowski said of last year’s NLCS outing, according to MLB.com. “I went through the struggles at the end of the (regular season) and really battled through it. Then the postseason rolled around, I had the success, and kind of brought it into this year. I’m still on that momentum, I would say.”
In his only regular-season start last season against the Dodgers, Misiorowski earned a 3-1 win when he gave up one run on four hits over six innings at Milwaukee. The July 8 outing was the fifth of his career.
Milwaukee continues to deal with injury issues. Not only has second baseman Brice Turang missed consecutive games with knee soreness, setup man Abner Uribe went on the 15-day injured list Friday with a right forearm flexor strain.
The Dodgers will counter on Saturday with left-hander Justin Wrobleski (11-4, 3.44 ERA) who is in a second-half funk this season. He earned a spot on the NL All-Star team last month but is 0-2 with a 9.88 ERA over his last three starts (13 2/3 innings).
Wrobleski’s 120 12/3 innings already are his most as a professional and top the 118 1/3 he had in the major leagues and Triple-A combined last season.
“I’m just not good enough right now,” he said. “It’s kind of what it comes down to. It’s really frustrating. Execution just hasn’t been as good. … I gotta be better. So move forward. I’m not the type to give up. So I’m ready to bear down.”
Wrobleski has two career starts against the Brewers, including one on May 22 at Milwaukee when he was rocked for five runs on eight hits over five innings in a 5-1 loss. He is 0-2 lifetime with an 8.10 ERA against Milwaukee.
The Dodgers received six strong innings from Yoshinobu Yamamoto (one run, four hits) on Friday, while Andy Pages and Tommy Edman hit home runs. Edwin Diaz earned the save after coughing up the lead in the ninth inning in the Thursday loss. Diaz loaded the bases before working out of the jam for his seventh save.
–Field Level Media
“(Diaz) had been on a little bit of a bad run, but there is no question about how good of a pitcher he is,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter. “It was good to see him back tonight.”
–Field Level Media
