Braves' Sale says Brewers' Misiorowski has 'probably the most impressive fastball I've ever seen'

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Milwaukee Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski outdueled one of his favorite pitchers and got quite a compliment from him afterward.

“It seems like he’s kind of in a league of his own this year,” 2024 NL Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale said after his Braves lost 2-1 to the Brewers on Friday. “It's probably the most impressive fastball I've ever seen."

That compliment meant plenty to Misiorowski, who has said on multiple occasions that Sale was one of the pitchers he enjoyed watching the most while growing up. Misiorowski pitched six shutout innings Friday in his first head-to-head matchup with Sale, who allowed two runs over six innings.

“It’s awesome to hear it from a guy like Sale, such a great guy, definitely a guy I looked up to — and still do,” Misiorowski said. “It’s really cool.”

Sale’s praise for Misiorowski’s fastball came on a day when the Brewers phenom didn’t rely on it nearly as much as usual. He solidified his status as the NL Cy Young Award favorite by showing he can thrive even when his fastball isn’t at its best.

Misiorowski’s 96-pitch outing included 56 four-seam fastballs but also 23 sliders, 14 cutters and three curves. Heading into Friday, Misiorowski was throwing four-seam fastballs 64% of the time and using his slider on only 11% of his pitches.

His fastball also didn’t have quite as much velocity as usual, at least by Misiorowski’s extraordinary standards. Misiorowski reached a top velocity of 103.1 mph, but that was the only pitch in which he exceeded 101.8. He reached at least 100 mph in 32 of his pitches.

“Just one of those days where it was just a down day,” Misiorowski said. “I had to grind through it and make it work.”

He made it work just fine.

“Today I wasn’t seeing the same kind of typical aggression that you usually see out of the fastball with Miz, but the slider was great,” Brewers catcher William Contreras said through an interpreter. “He’s being able to throw the sliders a little bit more to lefties now as well. Tremendous job by him just being able to give us different pitches to use whenever the fastball is maybe a little bit off.”

That assortment kept Atlanta’s hitters off balance.

Misiorowski (13-5) struck out six batters while allowing four hits and two walks in his six-inning stint. He has a 1.68 ERA and 216 strikeouts to lead the majors in both categories. Sale (12-9) has a 2.20 ERA to rank second.

“It’s tough,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “You’re gearing up for 100 and then you’re having to deal with cutters and sliders.”

Misiorowski needed to be that good to beat Sale, who has allowed three runs or fewer in an MLB-leading 20 consecutive starts.

The matchup of Cy Young Award contenders on first-place teams featured a sellout crowd and playoff-type atmosphere. Both pitchers benefited from outstanding fielding.

“Pitching and defense in that game are as good as you’re going to see — really high-level stuff,” Weiss said.

Braves shortstop Mauricio Dubón made a diving stop to start an inning-ending double play. Milwaukee’s Luis Lara attempted to stretch his single into a double but got thrown out on a 92.3-mph laser from right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr., according to Statcast.

Lara, who calls Acuña his favorite player, had a couple of gems of his own. He made a leaping catch at the center-field wall to rob Matt Olson of an extra-base hit in the sixth inning, then moved over to right and snared a 99.3-mph liner from Dubón for the final out of the eighth after Atlanta loaded the bases.

“I think we’ve got to change his name tag to ‘Air Lara,’ “ said Misiorowski, who jokingly asked Lara about that nickname while posing as a reporter during the rookie outfielder’s postgame media session.

With a little help from his friends, Misiorowski won his first head-to-head matchup with Sale, a player the Brewers right-hander has grown to appreciate even more now that they’ve met at the All-Star Game the last two years.

“That’s been really cool,” Misiorowski said. “That’s honestly been probably my favorite part, just getting to talk to guys like that, that I watched … and to get to play (against) now. It’s fun. It’s really fun.”

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