Jacob Misiorowski threw five innings against the Colorado Rockies, allowed one hit, walked nobody, struck out twelve, and his ERA got worse. That is the kind of season the 24-year-old is having.
Through four innings, Misiorowski was perfect. Not “effectively perfect” or “perfect if you squint.” Perfect — zero baserunners, eleven strikeouts, twenty up and twenty down. The first batter to reach base against him did so by hitting a solo home run in the fifth. He finished the inning, collected his twelfth strikeout, and left with a final line of 5 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 12 K on 83 pitches, 59 of them strikes. His season ERA ticked from 1.57 to 1.58.
That is what passes for a rough outing now.
The 6-foot-7 right-hander out of Crowder College — Milwaukee’s second-round pick in 2022, nicknamed “The Miz” — has been a different animal in his second major-league season. After a 2025 debut that produced a 4.36 ERA across 66 innings with nearly as many walks (31) as strikeouts (87), Misiorowski has slashed his walk rate, nearly doubled his strikeout total, and turned himself into a Cy Young contender. Baseball Reference lists his 2026 line at 10-4 with a 1.57 ERA, 173 strikeouts against 28 walks in 115 innings, and 4.4 WAR. He was named an All-Star for the second straight year.
The Rockies game fit the template. Seventy-one percent of his pitches were strikes. He didn’t issue a free pass. The one mistake — the home run — cost him exactly one run and raised his ERA by one one-hundredth. The math is almost comical: 20 earned runs over 115 innings is 1.565; 21 over 120 is 1.575. Round both and you get 1.57 and 1.58. A solo shot moved the needle by a hundredth of a point.
Misiorowski’s recent starts tell the story of a pitcher who has stopped fighting his own command. On July 7 he went seven innings against St. Louis, struck out eleven, walked none, and got the win. On June 26 he punched out eight Cubs over six innings. The start before this Rockies outing — July 20 against the Mets — was his shortest of the stretch at four innings, and he still struck out six and allowed one unearned run.
The Brewers have ridden his emergence to the top of a rotation that needed exactly this. A pitcher who walked 4.2 batters per nine as a rookie is now walking 2.2. His strikeout rate has climbed from 11.9 to 13.5 per nine. The stuff was always there — the fastball touches triple digits, the slider is a wipeout pitch — but the control has caught up to the velocity, and the league has not found an answer.
Twelve strikeouts in five innings. One hit. Zero walks. ERA goes up. That is the floor now.
