Jacob Misiorowski’s Worst Start Might Have Also Been HIs Best

Everything that could possibly go wrong seemed to do so Monday night for Jacob Misiorowski.

Playing in front of a capacity crowd for his first career start against the arch-rival Chicago Cubs in Game 1 of an NL Central Division showdown, the Milwaukee Brewers’ highly-touted flame-throwing rookie found himself in trouble, fast.

After giving up a leadoff single to Michael Busch, Misiorowski walked Kyle Tucker to bring up Seiya Suzuki, who reached when he hit a come-backer off Misiorowski’s shin, loading the bases.

Misiorowski finally recorded his first out of the night by striking out Pete Crow-Armstrong but the changeup he threw for strike three got past catcher WIlliam Contreras, allowing a runner to score and after striking out Carson Kelly, the Cubs plated two more when Misiorowski air-mailed a throw well over the head of first baseman Andrew Vaughn.

By the time he struck out Nico Hoerner to end the inning, Misiorowski had thrown 40 pitches and was, by his own admission, exhausted.

“It was a long inning and long innings suck,” Misiorowski said. “Your legs start feeling a little loose and every pitch seems to be getting away just a little bit.”

But what could have easily been the worst start of Misiorowski’s young career ultimtely became his most impressive yet as he came back out for the second and retired the side in order, then did the same in the third and fourth innings before handing things over to Milwaukee’s bullpen, which held Chicago to just one more run over the final five innings while the Brewers’ offense handled the rest in an 8-4 victory.

“It just goes to show the kid can pitch — not just throw,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “He’s going to learn from this.”

Misiorowski has been impressing his teammates – and all of baseball – every time he’s taken the mound since making his debut last month but what he did Monday made a big impression on Brewers veteran Christian Yelich.

“I told him it was my favorite start you’ve had in the big leagues, honestly,” Yelich said. “All the cruising and (strikeouts) and all that stuff is fun and exciting but this shows you a lot about what he’s made of out there when it’s kind of hitting the fan on him and it can get away from you.

“He gave up three runs, he probably feels like he should have gave up none. He throws one to the backstop and the throws one away, you can get down on yourself big right there. He reached back for 101 and I knew we were going to be alright when he did that right after all that happened. That was awesome. Come back in, settle down and go back out there and put up three scoreless innings. That’s what it’s all about.

“That’s how it’s going to be in the big leagues. It can be messy sometimes. You’ve got to reach back and compete when that kind of stuff happens. I love to see it from him. I told him that’s why it’s my favorite start.”

Misiorowski hasn’t experienced a lot of challenges since making his big-league debut last month. Save for one bad inning during a July 2 outing against the Mets, the rookie has been nothing short of un-hittable, holding opponents to just eight earned runs while striking out 40 in 29 1/3 innings spanning six starts.

He added seven more over four innings Monday but knows that outings like that are bound to happen, no matter how good a pitcher is. He also knows that he has the ability to bounce back from those performances, a lesson that is even more valuable to a young pitcher still finding his way in the game.

“That’s not the first one and its not going to be the last,” Misiorowski said. “It’s just one of those things … You learn from a young age to just move on.”