Jacob Misiorowski ties career-worst five earned runs in Brewers win over Cubs

Jacob Misiorowski walked off the mound at Wrigley Field on Wednesday having thrown 92 pitches, recorded 12 outs, and allowed five earned runs in four innings — a line that tied his career high for earned runs allowed, per Yahoo Sports. The Milwaukee Brewers scored nine runs and won 9-5, which means the outing will likely get filed under "forgettable" rather than "alarming." But the Statcast readout from that night is worth a closer look, because the obvious explanation doesn't quite fit.

What happened

Misiorowski's five earned runs in four innings matched the worst start of his big-league career, per Yahoo Sports. The previous instance came on July 2, 2025, when the New York Mets tagged him for five runs in 32⁄3 innings — his fourth major-league start and his first career loss. Wednesday's outing was longer by a third of an inning, which is a modest consolation, but the earned-run total was identical.

The Brewers' offense and bullpen absorbed the damage and turned it into a win, so the box score reads fine. The question Yahoo Sports raises is whether the underlying performance signals something worth monitoring as Milwaukee heads into the final stretch of the regular season.

Why it matters

The summer-long narrative around Misiorowski has centered on workload and fatigue. He is a young pitcher accumulating innings at a pace that has drawn attention, and manager Pat Murphy acknowledged possible fatigue after Misiorowski's August 21 outing, per the extracted reporting. When a starter allows five earned runs in four innings, the instinct — especially in September — is to reach for that fatigue explanation and call it a day.

Yahoo Sports pushes back on that instinct, at least for Wednesday's start. The velocity data does not support a fatigue story, not for this particular outing. Misiorowski's fastball averaged 100.9 mph on the night, per Yahoo Sports. That is not the reading of an arm running on fumes. Whatever caused the five earned runs, a depleted fastball was not it.

That distinction matters operationally. Fatigue and mechanical trouble are different problems with different solutions. If the velocity is holding and the results are still poor, the conversation shifts — to pitch execution, to sequencing, to what the Cubs were doing against him specifically. The Statcast readout, per Yahoo Sports, is described as "not the story you'd guess," which suggests the answer is somewhere other than the radar gun.

The broader context is that Milwaukee is 88-54 (.620), first in the NL Central, with a division magic number of 13. The Brewers can afford one rough start from their ace. What they cannot afford, as October approaches, is uncertainty about what that rough start actually meant.

The numbers

Misiorowski's fastball averaged 100.9 mph on Wednesday, per Yahoo Sports — a figure that, on its face, does not align with the fatigue narrative that has followed him through the second half of the summer. The career high for earned runs allowed is five, now tied twice: once in his fourth career start in July 2025, and once on Wednesday at Wrigley.

The Milwaukee Brewers sit at 88-54 (.620), leading the NL Central. Their division magic number is 13. They are currently on a one-game winning streak — which, given that the one game in question was a 9-5 victory that papered over a rough start from their top pitcher, counts as a reasonably efficient use of a bad outing.

Where the club stands

Milwaukee's 88-54 record puts them in first place in the NL Central with a division magic number of 13. Posterior Wire noted that the Brewers reached 85 wins by August 29, a pace described at the time as unusually fast for that point in the season. They have since added three more.

The roster around Misiorowski has been in motion. Abner Uribe was activated off the injured list ahead of the Cubs series. The club was expected to activate left-hander JoJo Romero and call up a position player — with Bo Naylor identified as a likely candidate — with the September 1 roster expansion, which under general league rules allows clubs to carry 28 players through the end of the regular season. Jonathan Ornelas was re-signed to a minor league deal and sent to Triple-A Nashville just before the postseason eligibility deadline, per Posterior Wire reporting. Joel Kuhnel was reinstated from the 15-day injured list and designated for assignment after his rehab window expired.

The bullpen that bailed Misiorowski out on Wednesday is, in other words, a work in progress — which makes the five innings of relief work required after his early exit a relevant data point for how the club manages its arms the rest of the way.

Thursday's game at Wrigley features Logan Henderson against Kevin Gausman. Friday and Saturday, the Brewers travel to Cincinnati, where Shane Drohan is lined up against Rhett Lowder on Friday and Dustin May faces Andrew Abbott on Saturday.

What we don't know yet

The velocity held. The results did not. Yahoo Sports frames the Statcast readout as surprising — the story you would not guess — but stops short of identifying a specific mechanical or sequencing cause for the five earned runs. What exactly the Cubs were doing against him, whether pitch execution or location was the issue, and whether Wednesday represents an isolated bad night or something that warrants a longer look remains unresolved in the reporting.

Pat Murphy's acknowledgment of possible fatigue came after the August 21 outing, not after Wednesday's start. Whether his read on Misiorowski has changed — or whether the velocity data has shifted that conversation internally — has not been reported.

What to watch

The velocity number is the thread to pull. If Misiorowski's fastball continues to average around 100.9 mph in his next start, the fatigue argument becomes harder to sustain, and the focus shifts to what the Cubs specifically did to produce five earned runs against a pitcher throwing that hard. If the velocity dips, the conversation Murphy was already having after August 21 becomes more urgent.

Milwaukee's magic number is 13 with the schedule turning toward Cincinnati. The division is not in serious jeopardy. But a team this close to clinching would prefer to know, with some confidence, what version of its ace shows up in October — and right now, Wednesday's outing raised more questions than the final score suggests.