Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski set a standard for velocity by a starting pitcher while striking out 11 over six dominant innings in the Brewers’ 6-0 victory over the New York Yankees on Friday night, a performance that turned the game into another showcase for the sport’s obsession with speed, control and the bodies that have to produce both.
Who Gets Measured
Misiorowski threw 10 pitches of at least 103 mph and had three pitches of 103.6 mph, the highest velocity any starter has reached since Statcast tracking began in 2008. The numbers are the point, the spectacle is the product, and the pitcher is the one asked to keep pushing the limit until the radar gun blinks in approval.
The 24-year-old right-hander called it a top-three performance in his major league career. He won head-to-head matchups with 2025 NL Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes and three-time Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw as a rookie, and he had a 1.50 ERA in three postseason appearances last year. The league loves its hierarchy, and it keeps a tidy ledger of who rises, who gets crowned, and who gets turned into a benchmark for the next arm to chase.
Misiorowski said, “It’s just adrenaline. That’s all it is. You start getting hyped up and you want to perform for your teammates behind you because they’re doing the same for me. That’s the whole goal.” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said, “Miz is interested in being great. And he’s in that process of being great.” Murphy also said, “I’m not real keen on the velo, whether it’s 100 or 103 or whatever. I just know if you don’t have your other stuff or don’t locate that in the zone or you’re throwing it just down the middle, these guys can time up a jet plane. It’s not just velo. There’s a lot more to it.”
The Body Behind the Radar Gun
All 10 of the pitches Misiorowski threw in the first inning went at least 102.4 mph. He reached 103 mph in the fifth inning on his 71st pitch of the night and ended his night with consecutive strikeouts of Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger. Forty-one of the 95 pitches he threw went 100 mph or higher, raising his season total to 193 in eight starts. The machine keeps asking for more, and the count keeps climbing.
Misiorowski leads the major leagues with 70 strikeouts and is the first pitcher to have at least 70 through his first eight starts of a season since Atlanta’s Spencer Strider in 2023. This was the second straight start in which he held his opponent scoreless. He had thrown 43 pitches of at least 100 mph in his prior start while working 5 1/3 shutout innings in a 6-1 victory over Washington. Misiorowski hadn’t allowed a hit when he left that game because of a right hamstring cramp.
That detail sits there like the fine print of the whole enterprise: the velocity, the strikeouts, the scoreless innings, and then the cramp. The game celebrates the output and quietly notes the cost.
What the Clubhouse Calls Greatness
Misiorowski said of Hall of Fame pitcher CC Sabathia, “CC’s the man. It’s really cool to meet a guy like that. He came in before (the game) and we got to really talk to him and pick his brain a little bit. It was fun.” He also said, “I had no clue. I got told in the dugout. I went back and looked. I thought (the ball) was close, but, ‘Oh, well.’ ”
Brewers reliever Shane Drohan said, “It’s hard to believe that you’re going to see something you possibly haven’t, with how much baseball we play. But when he’s on the mound, it’s possible.” That is the language of the apparatus around the player: awe, inevitability, and the expectation that the extraordinary should become routine.
The Brewers’ 6-0 victory over the New York Yankees gave the performance a clean final score, but the real story was the pressure placed on one arm to keep producing at a level no starter has reached since Statcast tracking began in 2008. The league records the speed, the strikeouts and the wins. The body absorbs the rest.