MILWAUKEE Jacob Misiorowski went out of his way to avoid becoming enmeshed in the excitement surrounding the highly anticipated battle between Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes and the rookie flamethrower.
“I feel like everything I swiped was me and Skenes, me and Skenes, me and Skenes,” Misiorowski said following the Brewers’ 4-2 victory against the Pirates on Wednesday. “It was just one of those things where you wanted to try and calm yourself as much as possible and stay off the Internet.” I had to turn it off and mute it.
Misiorowski needs to adjust to the increased attention given the way he is pitching.
Misiorowski has a 3-0 record and a 1.13 earned run average after outperforming the 2024 NL rookie of the year with five shutout innings. According to Sportradar, Misiorowski has given up three hits so far, which is the fewest of any major league pitcher in his first three career starts with at least 16 innings pitched since 1901.
On Wednesday, a lot of history was made.
On their fastballs, Misiorowski and Skenes averaged 99.5 and 98.5 mph, respectively, according to Sportradar. Since at least 2009, that was the highest combined fastball velocity by two starting pitchers in a single game.
Skenes topped 100 mph once out of 78 pitches, while Misiorowski reached 100 mph on 19 of his 74 deliveries, achieving a career-high peak of 102.4. This was the most combined 100-mph pitches made by rival pitchers in a game where both of them hit that mark at least once since at least 2009.
Regarding Skenes, Misiorowski remarked, “I’ve seen a lot of his games.” Facing a person like him and comparing yourself to some of the greatest is amazing.
Despite the excitement surrounding this 23-year-old duel, Misiorowski managed to strike out eight batters while giving up two hits and two walks. That was clear before the game even started.
Brewers catcher Eric Haase, whose locker is next to Misiorowski’s, stated, “We were sitting over here laughing, joking.” It didn’t appear to have any effect on him.
A season-high 42,774 people attended the game, which was played on a weekday afternoon. After giving up just one hit in his first two appearances, most were curious to see what Misiorowski would do next.
The kind of attention Skenes has earned after entering the major leagues as a No. 1 overall draft pick and leading LSU to a 2023 College World Series title may be too much for Misiorowski to handle given his turbulent beginnings.
Skenes has fared better than those high expectations. Last season, he placed third in the Cy Young Award voting and was awarded the NL rookie of the year.
What guidance would Skenes offer Misiorowski on how to deal with the possible attention that comes with becoming a celebrity?
You ve got to protect yourself, for lack of a better term, obviously with the media, but I assume if he goes and walks around Milwaukee now there s going to be more people that recognize him and all that,” said Skenes, who met Misiorowski for the first time on Monday. “That will not go away anytime soon if he fulfills his obligations and everyone believes he is capable of doing so. Become accustomed to it and look for ways to relax and such.
Skenes (4-7) only pitched four innings on Wednesday, giving up four runs, four hits, two walks, and four strikeouts. Skenes allowed as many as four runs just three times in his 40 career starts.
Milwaukee did all its damage during a second inning in which Skenes faced nine batters, threw 37 pitches and allowed four runs. Never before had Skenes faced that many hitters, thrown that many pitches or yielded that many runs in a single inning.
After Milwaukee loaded the bases on a walk and two singles to start the second, Isaac Collins scored from third as Joey Ortiz grounded out to Skenes on an 0-2 pitch. Haase then hit a 1-2 pitch for a bloop RBI double that bounced in front of center fielder Oneil Cruz s diving attempt. On a 1-2 offering, Christian Yelich singled to left to end the rally.
Skenes allowed only one other base runner in his other three innings while matching the second-shortest stint of his career. His shortest appearance came in his final start last year, when he worked just two innings by design and didn t allow a base runner in a9-4 victoryover the New York Yankees.
The performance raised Skenes’ career ERA from 1.91 to 2.03.
They did a good job of getting to some pitches,” Skenes said. “I wasn t unhappy with the execution of all of those, there are probably a couple that could have been better but they did a good job.
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AP freelance writer Rich Rovito contributed to this report.
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