Jacob Misiorowski had a historic night on the mound. He also put a gigantic scare into the Brewer faithful when he had to be removed from the game while cruising in the sixth inning, but the Brewers have hopefully avoided any major concern over Misiorowski’s health (early reports are that he was cramping), and even with that, Miz had his best start of the season. His offense backed him up tonight, too, led by William Contreras, who picked up four hits for the second straight game.
Garrett Mitchell got the Brewers off to a good start as he hit a double over the head of right fielder James Wood on the game’s first strike, a 109 mph missile. Brice Turang was next and moved Mitchell to third on a groundout to first, and Mitchell scored the game’s first run when a sweeper from Nats starter Jake Irvin snuck past catcher Drew Millas (a ball that was initially ruled a wild pitch but was later changed to a passed ball). Irvin recovered to get Contreras on a popup and Jake Bauers on a strikeout, but Milwaukee had an early 1-0 lead before Misiorowski touched the mound.
Miz started with back-to-back 102 mph fastballs to Wood, the second of which was lined to Luis Rengifo at third for the first out. Luis García Jr. struck out on a fastball that clocked in at 102.3 mph for the second out, and Miz kept the flames coming with a 103 mph fastball during his at-bat with Curtis Mead—according to Jeff Levering, that’s the fastest pitch a starting pitcher has thrown in the Statcast Era. Mead did draw a walk to extend the inning, and CJ Abrams did an admirable job of not striking out on a series of nasty 1-2 pitches and worked an 11-pitch at-bat, but ultimately grounded out to shortstop to end the inning.
Rengifo worked a walk to start the second inning, but Irvin got the next three—Tyler Black, Sal Frelick, and Blake Perkins—via strikeout, weak groundout, and strikeout. Misiorowski walked another batter to lead off the second but struck out the next two and got the third out with an assist from Jake Bauers, who made a nice play on a line drive to first.
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David Hamilton drew a leadoff walk in the third and, after Mitchell struck out, stole second. Irvin then walked Turang on four pitches to put two on for Contreras, who came through with a looping single to center on a pitch a couple inches off the outside of the plate. That scored Hamilton, and Milwaukee doubled its lead. Irvin got out of the inning without any more damage though, as Bauers struck out looking and Rengifo flew out to the edge of the warning track in center.
Miz got two quick groundball outs to start the bottom of the third, but García Jr. made him throw nine pitches (and worked from 0-2 to 3-2) before striking out to end the inning. Misiorowski was effective and hadn’t allowed a hit through three innings, but he was up to 56 pitches.
Black hit a solid ground-rule double down the left-field line to start the fourth, and Frelick followed with what was effectively a bunt when he swung at the first pitch and hit a dribbler down to third. That gave Perkins a shot with Black on third and one out, but Perkins hit a ball right back to Irvin. Black was caught in no-man’s land, and Irvin chased him down and tagged him out for the second out. Hamilton just missed his first home run as a Brewer when he followed with a fly ball to deep right-center, but Wood caught it on the warning track and an inning that started with real promise was over.
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Miz retired Mead and Abrams on fly balls and Daylen Lile on a line drive to first for a pretty quick and easy fourth. Four no-hit innings in the books.
Turang hit a one-out single in the top of the fifth, and Contreras followed with another—his second looping single on a ball well outside of the zone, this one a little tennis backhand on a pitch a couple inches low. Bauers followed with a great at-bat in which he fouled off a couple of tough two-strike curveballs, and drew a walk to load the bases for Rengifo. He fell behind but ended up hitting a weak ground ball to the right side of the infield; Bauers was retired at second, but there was no chance for a double play or a play at home and Turang scored from third. BABIP King Tyler Black followed with another fly ball down the left field line—it wasn’t hit quite as hard as his first one, but it still landed and Black had another double. Contreras scored, and the Brewers still had runners at second and third with two outs. Frelick stung one, by far the hardest-hit ball of the inning at 107 mph, but Wood was able to reach up and snag it for the third out.
If Misiorowski was looking good already, he really locked in for the bottom of the fifth. Brady House, Jorbit Vivas, and Millas were all struck out in order, and Miz was still getting an easy 101 on his fastball. Through five, Misiorowski had seven strikeouts and hadn’t allowed a hit on 80 pitches.
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Irvin was done after four, and was replaced by the left-handed Cionel Pérez for the bottom of the fifth. Perkins popped out, and Hamilton was given a rare opportunity face a lefty but flew out to shallow left. Mitchell grounded out, and Pérez had Washington’s first 1-2-3 inning of the game.
Misiorowski struck out Jacob Young looking to start the bottom of the sixth, but after his first pitch Wood he walked around the mound and the training and coaching staff came out of the dugout. It was not clear what happened to Misiorowski, but he was clearly uncomfortable; what we could gather based on irresponsible speculation, body language, and lip reading suggested that he’d perhaps had some sort of cramp in one of his legs. Brewers fans would need to anxiously await an update, but it didn’t look like anything was wrong with his arm and whatever it was didn’t seem serious on first blush. Later in the game, Sophia Minnaert confirmed that the issue was a cramp in Misiorowski’s right hamstring.
Aaron Ashby came quickly out of the bullpen and was, of course, given an extended period of time to warm up; he had no trouble finishing the inning, with a strikeout for Wood and a groundout from García Jr. Pérez continued in the seventh and got Turang to ground out, but Contreras—who is smoldering right now—picked up his third single of the game, his seventh hit in the last two days. Contreras was erased when Bauers grounded into a fielder’s choice, but Rengifo, flipped around to the right side of the plate, lined a hard single up the middle to keep the inning going. With two on and two out, Pat Murphy was going for the kill: he pulled Black back into the dugout and sent out the Kraken, Gary Sánchez. A wild pitch advanced both runners, but Sánchez grounded out to end the inning.
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Ashby was back for the bottom of the seventh, and the Nationals still didn’t have a hit. Ashby struck out Mead to start the inning, but a walk of Abrams was followed by the Nats’ first hit of the night on a shallow fly ball to left. Perkins, presumably trying to preserve the no-hitter, dove and couldn’t quite come up with it; the ball got past him, allowing Abrams and Lile to move to second and third. House hit a ground ball to third that resulted in the second out but also the first run of the game for Washington, as Abrams crossed the plate to make it 4-1. Old friend Joey Wiemer, who is still rocking a 176 wRC+ after a torrid start to the season, was called upon to pinch hit, but Ashby struck him out to end the inning.
The new Nationals pitcher in the eighth was Andre Granillo, a righty. Frelick, who’d already flew out on a 107 mph fly ball to right in this game, sprayed three straight hard-hit foul balls down the right field line before putting some serious english on a chopper down the third base line that kept it fair and made for an easy infield hit. Perkins followed with a hard-hit grounder that Nasim Nuñez, who’d just entered as a defensive sub, couldn’t handle; everybody was safe and Nuñez was charged with an error. Hamilton followed with a perfect bunt down the third base line that loaded the bases with nobody out despite zero baseballs reaching the outfield grass in the inning.
Mitchell, who came in 5-for-5 with the bases loaded this season, was up next. But Granillo managed to strike him out with a backfoot slider, and there was suddenly a way out of the inning. With one out, Turang was no less of a challenge, but he popped out for the second out. But Contreras, seven for his last eight, is hotter than the sun at the moment, and he poked a two-out, two RBI single through the right side. Contreras’s fourth hit of the game made it 6-1; he became just the seventh Brewer to ever have back-to-back four-hit games, and in the last two days, his batting average has risen from .262 to .310.
A Bauers walk loaded the bases again, but Rengifo popped out to center—a pop out which clearly frustrated him, as he got a hanging slider about as right-down-the-middle as a hanging slider can be. Ashby, who’d recorded five outs but had needed only 26 pitches to do so, kept pitching in the eighth (and was joined on the diamond by Joey Ortiz, who came in at shortstop, with Hamilton moving over to third and Rengifo to the bench). Ashby walked the first batter, Millas, and Young singled on a soft liner. It felt like maybe it was time to get Ashby out of there, but he kept going: he fell behind Wood 3-0, but a fortunate call on a 3-0 pitch and a successful challenge from Contreras on 3-1 gave Ashby new life. He came back to strike out Wood, and García Jr. and Mead grounded out to end the inning.
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Paxton Schultz entered and got two quick outs in the top of the ninth, but Milwaukee mustered a bit of a two-out rally. For the second time on the night, Perkins reached on an error, and Hamilton followed with a single to right. Perkins moved to third, and Hamilton stole second to put two runners in scoring position for the top of the order, but Mitchell struck out looking at a fastball at the top of the zone.
With a five-run lead, Easton McGee was the Brewer pitcher in the ninth. He struck out Abrams, then walked Lile, then induced a game-ending double play from pinch-hitter José Tena (which needed to be confirmed via replay after Washington challenged). A solid Brewers win, 6-1.
Misiorowski’s night ended suddenly and with some concern, but he was quite literally unhittable tonight. It even seemed sometimes like Miz didn’t have his best control, but he was throwing harder for longer than he has ever done before—at near historic levels. He came just shy of Hunter Greene’s Statcast-Era record for most pitches thrown at 100mph or higher in a single start (43 of them, compared with Greene’s record of 47), and he threw more pitches at 102 or higher, by far, than any other starting pitcher:
In total, Misiorowski threw 5 1/3 innings, walked two, didn’t allow a hit, and struck out eight. He was relieved tonight by Ashby, who threw 2 2/3 innings and allowed two hits and two walks while striking out four. McGee finished things up with his scoreless ninth. Overall, it was a great night for the Brewer pitching staff: they allowed just two hits and one run while striking out 13.
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On the other side of the ball, the Brewers were led by Contreras and his four singles and three RBI. But Black also added two doubles and an RBI, while Hamilton also had a pair of singles. Mitchell’s leadoff double was the team’s only other extra-base hit, but they outhit the Nationals 12 to two on the night.
The Brewers will get two opportunities to pick up their second straight series victory, but you know they’ll be gunning for a sweep to erase the one that Washington took from them in Milwaukee. Game two tomorrow is a late-afternoon start, at 3:05 p.m. central, in which Kyle Harrison will face off with Foster Griffin.
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