Jacob Misiorowski keeps making elite lineups look uncomfortable, and Shohei Ohtani got the full dose of it Saturday night at Dodger Stadium.
The Milwaukee right-hander gave the Brewers exactly what they needed in a 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers, working six innings and allowing just one run on five hits. The outing helped Milwaukee lock up at least a series split, and Misiorowski did it without piling up a huge strikeout total, finishing with six - his second-lowest mark of the season.
“They had a great approach coming in,” Misiorowski said on the Fox broadcast. “They were just trying to push me the other way, so it was a battle. I think I won in the end.”
The biggest jam came in the bottom of the fifth. After retiring Tommy Edman, Misiorowski gave up three straight singles to Teoscar Hernández, Alex Call and Hunter Feduccia to load the bases with one out. That brought the moment of the night: Misiorowski struck out Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman back-to-back to escape without damage.
“William [Contreras] saw something,” Misiorowski said of getting out of the inning. “I don’t know.
We trust him. He saw something in the Shohei at-bat and he rolled into it with Freeman, and it worked.
It was fun.”
If the fifth inning was the pressure point, the first inning was the show. Misiorowski came right at Ohtani with heat from the opening pitch, throwing him six pitches at 102.9 mph or harder to start the bottom of the first. One of those fastballs hit 104.2 mph, the hardest pitch he threw all night.
That was also part of a bigger theme: Misiorowski’s fastball was humming. Over six innings, his heater averaged 101.4 mph, and his five hardest pitches of the game were all delivered to Ohtani.
“It was just coming out easy. Free and easy,” Misiorowski said.
“It was awesome to have Shohei in the box and him knowing what was coming, and still not be able to hit it. It was fun.”
The performance pushed Misiorowski’s season numbers even higher. He’s now 12-5 with a Major League-best 1.75 ERA, along with a 2.14 FIP, 0.75 WHIP and 13.6 strikeouts per nine across 139 innings in 23 starts. At this point, he’s the clear favorite for the National League Cy Young Award.
Saturday was only the third time the Dodgers have faced Misiorowski. Their previous look came in Game 3 of the 2025 NL Championship Series.
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