Baseball throws fastballs, but few arms throw thunder quite like Jacob Misiorowski. When the Milwaukee Brewers walked into Los Angeles for a clash of division leaders, everyone expected a heavyweight fight. What played out on the field was an absolute masterclass in raw power and clutch pitching, capped off by a 4-1 victory that left the Dodgers searching for answers.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts admitted he had never seen anything quite like it. Misiorowski opened the game by throwing his first six pitches at over 102 miles per hour, treating Shohei Ohtani to an introduction that immediately set a frantic tone. Hitting triple digits right out of the gate changes the math for any lineup. By the time Misiorowski finished carving through six innings of one-run ball, allowing just five hits and striking out five with a single walk, he had firmly stamped his name across the Cy Young conversation. Read more on a connected issue: this related article.
Justin Wrobleski pitched a clean game for Los Angeles on paper, matching the six-inning workload and racking up six strikeouts of his own. But baseball is a game of razor-thin margins, and Wrobleski learned that lesson the hard way. Two mistakes with two outs proved fatal. In the second inning, Joey Ortiz launched a 373-foot two-run home run to left field right after William Contreras kept the inning alive with a two-out single. Contreras returned the favor in the fourth, jumping on an ill-timed cutter to extend Milwaukee's lead to 4-1.
Wrobleski's recent slide remains a glaring concern for the Dodgers. Having surrendered eleven home runs over his last four outings, the young left-hander is battling mechanical consistency just as the stretch run intensifies. Dodgers hitters couldn't bail him out either, squandering their golden opportunity in the fifth frame. Additional journalism by NBC Sports explores similar views on this issue.
The game turned on a single sequence in the bottom of the fifth. Los Angeles loaded the bases with one out against Misiorowski, bringing up the heavy artillery in Ohtani and Freddie Freeman. Most pitchers fold under that kind of pressure. Misiorowski dialed up his velocity, caught Ohtani looking or swinging through, and then painted the corners to dispatch Freeman, punctuating the escape with an emphatic leaping fist pump. That sequence defined the night.
Milwaukee bullpen arms closed the door efficiently from there, keeping the potent Dodgers lineup quiet down the stretch to even up the series. If this game proved anything, it is that the National League pennant race will run through pitching staffs capable of throwing absolute fire under immense pressure.
Check the box scores, track pitch tracking data on the top velocity leaders, and watch how the Brewers manage Misiorowski's workload down the stretch to see how October shapes up.
