Jacob Misiorowski went five shutout innings as the Brewers earned a 4-2 victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Misiorowski walked the first batter he faced, Adam Frazier, to start the game. Frazier stole second and made it to third on a Bryan Reynolds flyout. With one out and a runner on third, Miz was able to bear down — striking out Spencer Horwitz and Nick Gonzales to get out of the inning.
The bottom of the first went similarly for Skenes. He walked Frelick to start the game, but — like Misiorowski — retired the next three batters in quick succession.
Pittsburgh went three up, three down in the top of the second. That was the last half inning in which Misiorowski would be pitching with no run support. Isaac Collins walked to lead off the inning, followed by a Brice Turang single. Caleb Durbin then singled on a ground ball up the middle, loading the bases for Joey Ortiz.
Ortiz quickly went down 0-2 before fouling off the next couple of pitches. He then hit a dribbler up the first base line that Skenes had to come out and field, scoring Isaac Collins on the fielders’ choice for the first run.
That brought up Eric Haase with runners on second and third. Haase, in his first at-bat not against a position player since June 11th, hit a fly ball into shallow centerfield. The ball dropped just ahead of a sliding Oneil Cruz, scoring Turang and advancing Durbin to third. It was ruled an RBI double for Haase, making his first start in exactly two weeks.
With runners again on second and third, Pittsburgh brought the infield in. Sal Frelick hit a chopper to Gonzales at second. Durbin got a great jump and would have beat the throw from Gonzales anyway, but it sailed way over catcher Henry Davis’ head and off of the backstop.
Jackson Chourio then flew out to Cruz in center for the second out. With runners at first and third, Christian Yelich hit a line drive single into left, scoring Haase to make it 4-0 Brewers. Rhys Hoskins then lined out to end the inning.
Misiorowski, at that point, had been in the dugout for a while due to the Brewers’ rally. You wouldn’t have been able to tell, though. He methodically retired the side on ten pitches, recording two more strikeouts. Skenes settled in nicely in the bottom of the third, recorded a three-up, three-down inning of his own.
Miz gave up a hard-hit single to Bryan Reynolds to start the fourth. He then walked Spencer Horwitz on six pitches, four of which weren’t particularly close to the zone. It briefly looked as if Misiorowski was beginning to unravel. However, the next batter — Gonzales — grounded into a double play. With a runner on third, Misiorowski struck out Oneil Cruz to end the inning.
Skenes retired each of the three batters he faced in the fourth. That would be it for Skenes, who ended up allowing four runs (all earned) on four hits and two walks. He also struck out four. He’d already thrown 78 pitches through four innings due to the Brewers’ second inning rally. Today’s game matched the second shortest outing of his career.
Misiorowski allowed an infield single to Tommy Pham to lead off the fifth, but retired each of the next three batters — culminating in this nasty slider for strike three against Isiah Kiner-Falefa.
That was the 74th pitch of the game for Misiorowski. He’s still on a pitch count, so he didn’t end up coming out for the sixth. His final stat line: 5 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 0 ER.
Neither team threatened to score in the sixth inning. Facing Grant Anderson, Oneil Cruz led off the seventh with a line drive to Isaac Collins. Collins, who’s normally a stellar defender, dropped the ball, putting Cruz on second with nobody out. Tommy Pham then singled into left field on a ball that was clearly going to score Cruz. Collins threw home anyway, allowing Pham to take second.
After that, Anderson struck out the next two batters — Jared Triolo and Henry Davis — to end the inning.
The bottom of the seventh was pretty uneventful save for a Sal Frelick single. In the top of the eighth, Spencer Horwitz hit a two out RBI double off of Abner Uribe. Uribe got Gonzales to fly out to Chourio in center for the third out, bringing the game to its final score of 4-2. Trevor Megill picked up the save for the Crew in a three up, three down appearance.
This victory felt really good. It’s not like Milwaukee was teeing off on Skenes, but it was the kind of scrappy, small ball performance that has become a hallmark of this Brewers offense. Skenes hadn’t given up four runs in a single outing since April 8th. Milwaukee tagged Skenes for four runs in the second inning alone.
Milwaukee only had one extra base hit all game, yet found a way to win. Short of Yeli’s RBI single in the bottom of the second, Skenes didn’t really miss a pitch. Brewers hitters simply found ways to put the ball in play — and when you put the ball in play, good things happen. Skenes wasn’t pitching badly at all, and the Brewers managed to scrape together a four run inning. That’s a great sign.
Misiorowski living up to the hype and outdueling Skenes was just icing on the cake. The much-ballyhooed pitching matchup pitted a Rookie of the Year and All-Star starter against a guy with two major league appearances. Skenes is one of the best righty starters in the game right now, if not the best. Miz looked just as good as him today — maybe even a little better. He’s been absolutely lights-out in each of his three starts as a Brewer and now has an ERA of 1.13 on the season. Really encouraging stuff from the rookie right-hander.
After an off day tomorrow, Milwaukee will continue their home stand against the Colorado Rockies. Jose Quintana is scheduled to take the mound for the Crew. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m.