Tuesday night in Milwaukee presented baseball fans with a really fun matchup. The Dodgers were facing the Brewers and that’s fun enough, given the standing of both teams currently in the NL playoff picture, but the pitching battle was also a great contrast. Future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw was fresh off the start where he recorded his 3,000th career strikeout and facing off against Brewers rookie Jacob Misiorowski in his fifth career start.
Kershaw wasn’t bad at all. He gave up two runs on six hits in six innings.
The youngster was better in this one, though, despite allowing a leadoff homer to Shohei Ohtani. That would be just about all the trouble Misiorowski allowed all night. From that homer on, he basically had his way with the powerful Dodgers’ lineup, making them look silly more often than not. He mixed mostly fastballs with his slider and curve while dropping in the occasional change. His curve was most effective, as Misiorowski got 13 swings out of 21 curves, with eight of those swings being whiffs.
WATCH: Shohei Ohtani makes Dodgers history with 431-foot home run vs. Brewers
Matt Snyder
In his six innings of work, Misiorowski gave up only that one run on four hits. He walked one. He struck out 12. That is one shy of the Brewers’ rookie record (Freddy Peralta, now Misioroski’s teammate, struck out 13 on May 13, 2018).
For video proof of the dominance, here’s a strikeout compilation, starting with Misiorowski getting Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman:
Misiorowski in five career starts is now 4-1 with a 2.81 ERA, 0.90 WHIP and 33 strikeouts. There was a concern with walks when he came up, notably when he walked four in five innings in his debut. He’s now walked 11 in 25 ⅔ innings and while that isn’t a low percentage, it isn’t anything that’s costing him greatly at this point. Per CBS Sports research, Misiorowski is just the second pitcher in the modern era (1901-present) to allow one run with six or fewer hits in his first three home starts.
Team this Brewers’ win with the Cubs‘ loss in Minnesota, and the Brewers are now 2.5 games back in the NL Central.
The Dodgers, on the other hand, have now lost five straight games for the first time since May 21-26, 2024. The Dodgers, of course, went on to win the World Series that season. They haven’t had a six-game losing streak since April 8 through April 13, 2019.
This series concludes with a matinee on Wednesday, set for 2:10 p.m. ET in Milwaukee. The pitching matchup is lefty José Quintana for the Brewers while Tyler Glasnow returns from injury for the Dodgers.
