Classic rocks: Cubs can’t handle heat, lose to Brewers, Misiorowski
MILWAUKEE — Jacob Misiorowski's first-inning stat line was roughly equivalent to someone listing their favorite FM radio stations.
His first three pitches to Pete Crow-Armstrong leading off the game were 103.1, 104.3 and 105.5 mph. The 105.5 tied the fastest pitch recorded during the StatCast era, since 2008.
Bruce Springsteen probably sang about throwing that speedball by you on one of those frequencies.
Seiya Suzuki became the first Cub to hit a home run against Misiorowski, creating a 1-0 lead in the fifth. But the bullpen couldn't hold on, and Milwaukee won its fourth straight in the season series 6-2 on Friday.
Misiorowski was his usual self and then some, throwing 55 pitches at 100 mph or more, according to StatCast. When the Cubs finally put together an inning, loading the bases with two outs in the sixth, Misiorowski struck out Ian Happ with a 102.8 mph fastball on his 107th pitch of the night. The Cubs finished with just 2 hits against the flamethrower, with 4 walks and 8 strikeouts.
“He's hard to square up,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said of Misiorowski. “He's been hard to make contact against. Basically, we had an at-bat at the end of his game, Ian had an at-bat that, if you make something good happen there, a walk or anything, maybe we can tack on there.”
Cubs starter Colin Rea held his own, working out of some trouble to toss five scoreless innings. Rea finally left after giving up an infield single and walk to start the sixth inning.
The Cubs came somewhat close to turning a triple play when Andrew Vaughn hit a line drive up the middle that reliever Ethan Roberts caught at his waist. The runner on second was doubled-up easily, but the runner on first got back to the bag in time.
The Cubs needed to turn three, though, because Garrett Mitchell followed with a 2-run homer to right field, putting the Brewers ahead. An inning later, Venezuela native William Contreras unloaded for a 449-foot, 2-run homer in the seventh to make it 5-1, later dedicating the blast to his home country, which endured a severe earthquake this week.
“The double play gives us momentum, (the Mitchell home run) just flipped the game, right?” Counsell said. “Then we had some tired relievers, so this wasn't the game to chase with where our bullpen's at, unfortunately.”
The Brewers loaded the bases in the first, got a one-out double in the second, then had a runner on third with no outs and the top of the order up in the fifth, but Rea pitched out of it every time.
“Just compete, try to make pitches, try and execute,” Rea said. “Sometimes in those situations, you can overdo it or try to get nasty or whatever, but it comes down to execution in those situations.”
Besides the home run, Suzuki also walked against Misiorowski, and he drove in the Cubs' second run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth.
“(Misiorowski) is aggressive in the zone with all the pitches, so my approach today was get up in the box, not really think one pitch,” Suzuki said through translator Edwin Stanberry. “Just kind of see the ball and try to hit it.”
One interesting sidebar from the Brewers side was manager Pat Murphy spent his day off Thursday having back surgery to repair a ruptured disk, then was back on the job Friday.
Murphy, 67, could have spent the day recovering at home, and he was well aware of that when he spoke pregame.
“I'm nothing special,” Murphy said. “I've made that clear. I was in way more pain the last six days, the last 10 days, than I am today. So I'm thankful, grateful.”
Murphy and Counsell go back a long way, to when Murphy coached Counsell in college at Notre Dame, followed by several years working together with the Brewers.
“I just hope he's feeling better,” Counsell said. “The managing part, I don't really care about, to be honest with you. I just hope he feels better, because I know he's been in a lot of pain.”