FIRST TIME LUCKY: Milwaukee’s first World Series game in 44 years, Misiorowski helped the Brewers to a 3-2 victory against the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday’s opener
Jacob Misiorowski stepped on the mound for a World Series debut like no other.
“I had so much adrenaline built up,” he said.
He threw a pitch the likes of which had never been seen in the Fall Classic.
Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski throws during the first inning of Game 1 of baseball’s World Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays in Milwaukee on Friday.
Photo: AP
The Miz broke the World Series velocity record with his very first delivery, a 103.5mph (166.6kph) fastball to the Tampa Bay Rays’ Yandy Diaz that was taken high out of the strike zone for a ball. He allowed one run over five innings to get his first postseason win as a starter, helping the Milwaukee Brewers to a 3-2 victory in Friday night’s opener.
“I don’t even know how to tell you how I felt,” the 24-year-old right-hander said a half-hour after the end of a crazy ninth inning, prolonged by a game-extending video review. “I still don’t know how I felt. I feel like I’m still trying to take everything in and understand what happened.”
Misiorowski gave up four hits and one walk, striking out a season-low three.
Aroldis Chapman of the Chicago Cubs had the previous mark for fastest Series pitch at 103.2mph in the ninth inning of Game 2 in 2016, an offering that resulted in a groundout to second by Cleveland’s Coco Crisp. The previous high by a Series starting pitcher since tracking began in 2008 was 101.1mph by the New York Mets’ Noah Syndergaard to Kansas City’s Ben Zobrist that was taken for a ball in the first inning of Game 3 in 2015.
Miz reached 100mph with 38 pitches, topping the previous Series high of 24 by Chapman in Game 5 of 2016. The most by a starting pitcher in the Series had been six by Tampa Bay’s Tyler Glasnow in the 2020 opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Tampa Bay scored in the fourth when Jonathan Aranda walked, took third on Junior Caminero’s double over center fielder Garrett Mitchell and came around on Liam Hicks’ grounder to first baseman Jake Bauers.
Nearing the end of his first full major league season, Misiorowski has reached 100mph with 134 of 260 postseason pitches. However, his spin rate was down, a sign of a season in which he has pitched 188 innings — up from 141 1/3 innings last year. And he got just seven swings and misses, five on his fastball.
Tampa Bay batters fouled off 20 of his 78 pitches and tipped another.
During the regular season, Misiorowski reached 100mph with 1,115 pitches, including a high of 105.5mph to the Chicago Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong on June 27.
“What we’re used to seeing in the regular season was Miz just mow through people and have two strikeouts an inning. That’s unrealistic,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “This is the best team in the American League.”
Miz’s first pitch was so fast the scoreboard at American Family Field could not keep up, flashing 103.4mph— one-tenth of a mile less than it registered on MLB’s Statcast system.
“He’s such a special pitcher,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “I felt like for him to be out of the game at five innings, there’s a small win in that.”
Misiorowski threw fastballs on 10 of his first 12 pitches, then mixed in more offspeed stuff. In all he tossed 48 fastballs, 17 cutters, seven sliders and six curveballs.
Miz finished with 30 pitches at 101mph or higher, 11 of 102mph or more and three at over 103mph.
Warming up in the bullpen, he could not take in the introductions before Milwaukee’s first World Series game in 44 years. He thought about how far he had come, how he was at Double-A Biloxi two years ago.
“It was crazy,” he said. “It’s everything I dreamed of.”