Iván Herrera didn’t just walk into Tuesday’s matchup with Jacob Misiorowski and hope for the best. He came armed with a plan, and it was as unusual as the pitcher he was trying to beat.
Facing one of baseball’s most overpowering arms in the first game of the Cardinals’ doubleheader against the Brewers, Herrera went into the cage before the game and had the pitching machine firing foam baseballs at 107 mph or faster. The idea was simple: make Misiorowski’s velocity feel a little less shocking once the real at-bats started.
It worked.
Herrera turned around a blistering triple-digit fastball from the 24-year-old right-hander and sent it 378 feet for a third-inning home run, giving St. Louis a 3-2 lead. It was one of the few clean wins the Cardinals could claim on a night that ended with Milwaukee taking a 4-3 victory.
Misiorowski arrived with all the usual warning labels attached. He’s been one of the most electric pitchers in the sport this season, with a fastball that has reached over 105 mph and an All-Star nod for the second straight year.
He also leads MLB with 167 strikeouts after piling up 11 more against St. Louis.
Herrera still found a way to make noise against him. The 26-year-old has kept rolling after last year’s breakout, hitting .255/.390/.406 with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs this season. Against a pitcher built to overwhelm hitters, he was the one who landed the punch.
MLB.com's Brenden Schaeffer described Herrera’s pregame prep in a post to X on Tuesday: "Iván Herrera said to prepare to face Misiorowski, he got into the cage pregame and ramped up the machine to spit out foam baseballs at 107 mph or faster, so that it would look slower in the game," MLB.com's Brenden Schaeffer shared in a post to X on Tuesday. "That explains how he was able to actually be out in front on Miz's heat, pulling his homer so hard that radio broadcaster Ricky Horton was pleading with it to stay fair during his HR call."
Even with Herrera’s big swing, the Cardinals couldn’t finish the job. They’ve now dropped the first two games of their five-game set with Milwaukee, and the schedule isn’t letting up anytime soon with the Atlanta Braves coming before the All-Star break.
St. Louis remains in the hunt for a wild-card spot, but the margin is getting tighter, and the club will need Herrera to keep producing if it wants to stay in the mix as the trade deadline approaches.
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