Jacob Misiorowski gets plenty of attention for the numbers, but Friday’s start against the Braves brings something a little different: a childhood idol on the other side.
When the Brewers open their series against Atlanta at American Family Field at 3:10 p.m. CT, Misiorowski will line up opposite Chris Sale, a left-hander he grew up watching and admiring. The matchup also puts two of the National League’s top Cy Young contenders in the same game, with a three-game set that starts with two afternoon games in Milwaukee before finishing in Williamsport, Pa., for MLB’s annual Little League Classic.
“I don’t really focus on matchups, but it’s going to be fun,” Misiorowski said, recalling meeting Sale at last year’s All-Star Game as one of the biggest moments of his Midsummer Classic experience. “It’s like playing [Clayton] Kershaw last year. One of those moments where it’s, holy cow, you’re in the big leagues.”
The numbers make the showdown even sharper. Misiorowski enters with a 1.75 ERA, best in MLB, while Sale sits right behind him at 2.16.
Misiorowski also leads the majors in strikeouts with 210, plus WHIP at 0.75 and opponents’ average at .151. Sale is among the league’s top 13 in each of those categories, still dealing at age 37 like a pitcher much younger.
For Misiorowski, the appeal of Sale went beyond results. He was eight years old when Sale reached the majors, and what stood out most was the way the veteran carried himself.
“I like how he is, how he shows emotion,” Misiorowski said. “He was one of the first true guys to really show emotion back in the day.
When he got a big strikeout, he would let you know. I think that was cool.
As a kid, that’s where I got it from. I’m not trying to be one of those quiet guys who just walks off.”
The frame mattered too. Sale has always been listed at 6-foot-6, and Misiorowski, now 6-foot-7 himself, saw a body type he could identify with as he was growing into his own game.
“That was definitely a good point as a kid,” Misiorowski said. “You saw that guy and thought, OK, I can do it too. There’s something in play with that.”
Both pitchers already know this opponent from earlier in the season, just not in the same game. Misiorowski’s first career outing against the Braves came on June 19 at Truist Park, where he took a tough-luck loss despite allowing two earned runs on five hits over six innings and carrying a shutout into the sixth. Sale followed the next night and didn’t get a decision after holding the Brewers to two unearned runs in 5 2/3 innings, with the game ending on Ozzie Albies’ pop-fly walkoff home run.
Misiorowski is coming off a win over the Dodgers, while Sale is coming off a loss at Arizona, though the Braves’ offense was the bigger issue there. Sale finished a 108-pitch outing by hitting 99.1 mph with his fastest fastball of the season and allowed one run over six innings. That performance also put him in rare company: he became one of just seven pitchers in the Live Ball Era, which dates to 1920, to post a 2.20 ERA or better through the first 22 starts of an age-37-or-older season.
The others on that list are Spud Chandler in 1946, Dutch Leonard in 1948, Kevin Brown in 2003, Roger Clemens in 2005, Max Scherzer in 2022 and Justin Verlander in 2022.
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