Jacob Misiorowski threw five scoreless innings Tuesday night as the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-1 at PNC Park. The ace said afterward it was not his best outing.
He allowed five hits, struck out seven and walked one. He threw 82 pitches, 62 for strikes, and improved to 15-5 while lowering his ERA to 1.89.
The win moved Milwaukee to 94-57. The Atlanta Braves beat the Chicago Cubs 6-3 later Tuesday at Wrigley Field, giving the Brewers their fourth straight National League Central title and their fifth in six seasons.
Misiorowski spoke after the Brewers’ win, before the Cubs result was final, in a video posted by Fox Sports Radio Wisconsin.
Jacob Misiorowski leaned on the Brewers’ defense against Pittsburgh
Misiorowski lost his arm side at points Tuesday. Left fielder Jackson Chourio threw out Ryan O’Hearn at third base.
“Honestly, it wasn’t my best,” Misiorowski said. “Got the job done. I had a hell of a defense behind me. Always making plays, so all I can ask for.”
“Just was losing our arm side, just normal stuff,” Misiorowski continued. “Just nothing crazy with it. Just wasn’t my best stuff.”
The Pirates finished with 10 hits, four of them from catcher Rafael Flores Jr. Aaron Ashby followed Misiorowski with two scoreless innings. Brandon Lowe hit his 30th home run off DL Hall in the eighth, and Trevor Megill finished the ninth.
Misiorowski’s previous start came Sept. 8 against the Cubs. He allowed one run over 6 1/3 innings with nine strikeouts. In that start, he crossed 1,000 pitches of 100 mph or faster for the season, the first pitcher in the Statcast era to do it.
His only other start against Pittsburgh this season came April 25 in Milwaukee. He allowed three runs on six hits with nine strikeouts, and the Pirates won 6-3 in 10 innings.
Milwaukee took a 1-0 lead in the second inning, when Luis Lara’s sacrifice fly scored Jake Bauers.
“It’s just the boys grinding,” Misiorowski said. “That’s them doing their jobs and putting a run across the board. So that’s all I can ask for. And they did all I could and more, so it’s awesome.”
Jacob Misiorowski on pitching the night the Brewers clinched the NL Central
A potential clinch night is what Misiorowski said every game builds toward.
“It’s awesome,” Misiorowski said. “This is what you pray for and hope for as a baseball player. That’s the whole goal in every game that leads up to it.”
He gave the moment no extra thought the night before.
“There’s nothing to it,” Misiorowski said. “It’s just another ballgame to go do my job.”
The Brewers want more than a division title, and Misiorowski called the Central one step in a longer climb.
“That’s definitely another step in our journey,” Misiorowski said. “We’re hoping for a little bit more, but if that’s what we get, then we’ll be happy with it.”
This title means as much to him as the one Milwaukee won in 2025, his rookie season.
“Honestly, I think it’s about the same,” Misiorowski said. “I think it still means a lot for this team. The team means a lot for me.”
Jacob Misiorowski says the Brewers are ‘a scrappy bunch’
Misiorowski does not have an explanation for Milwaukee’s run of success.
“I couldn’t tell you,” Misiorowski said. “I’ve been trying to figure out all year. We’re just a scrappy bunch that puts the ball in play and hopes for the best.”
Milwaukee did not homer Tuesday. It broke the game open with four runs in the sixth on a wild pitch, a Lara RBI double and a two-run Joey Ortiz single.
“I wouldn’t say they underestimate us anymore,” Misiorowski said. “I think we’ve gotten to a spot where they kind of see it, they understand our game. But we’re not the long ball team. We’re going to go out there and single you to death. So it’s fun.”
Misiorowski has 243 strikeouts this season, and he’s the favorite in the NL Cy Young race. MLB.com’s final Cy Young poll of the season named him the unanimous choice.
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