Padres' uncanny ability to foul off pitches chases Misiorowski from NLDS opener after 4 innings

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Jacob Misiorowski opened his first career playoff start Saturday night by throwing a 104.8 mph strike to Fernando Tatis Jr. — the fastest postseason pitch since tracking began in 2008.

The next delivery to Tatis was 104.6 mph, the second-fastest of the tracking era.

Yet the San Diego Padres hung tough against the NL Cy Young Award favorite by fouling off 30 of his 88 pitches — 31 if you count Xander Bogaerts' popup that was caught in foul territory — to chase the Milwaukee Brewers ace after four innings in Game 1 of their NL Division Series.

That matched the average length of Misiorowski’s three postseason relief appearances during the Brewers’ run to the National League Championship Series last year, when he posted a 1.50 ERA with 16 strikeouts in 12 playoff innings.

Misiorowski’s presence was a major reason why the Brewers entered the postseason believing they had a legitimate shot at winning their first World Series title. The Brewers have home-field advantage throughout the postseason after winning a franchise-record 103 games during the regular season.

In his first full season in the big leagues, Misiorowski posted a 1.80 ERA, struck out 252 batters and limited hitters to a .157 batting average to lead the majors in all three categories. The only other pitchers since 1950 to finish a season atop all three of those categories were Sandy Koufax in 1965, J.R. Richard in 1979 and Mike Scott in 1986, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

That .157 opponents’ batting average was the lowest since 1900 for an AL or NL pitcher with 100 or more innings, improving upon Pedro Martinez’s .167 in 2000. Misiorowski's 0.80 WHIP (walks and hits allowed per innings pitched) was the lowest in a full regular season for pitchers with at least 150 innings since Martinez’s 0.73 in 2000.

Misiorowski’s 1,115 pitches of 100 mph or more were the most in a season during the tracking era, shattering the prior mark of 673 by Jordan Hicks in 2018.

But the 6-foot-7 right-hander wasn’t as dominant as usual Saturday as the Padres drove up his pitch count.

San Diego even touched up Misiorowski for two runs in the second inning, which marked a giant step forward from the only other time the Padres faced him. Misiorowski struck out 10 and allowed four hits in seven shutout innings against them on May 13, though San Diego rallied to win that game 3-1 on Gavin Sheets’ three-run homer off Abner Uribe with two outs in the ninth.

Bogaerts, Ethan Salas and Luis Campusano hit consecutive one-out singles, with Campusano’s base hit to right field driving in Bogaerts. Jake Cronenworth then hit a broken-bat grounder, and first baseman Jake Bauers was unable to throw out Salas at the plate.

San Diego could have done even more damage, but Manny Machado grounded out to leave the bases loaded.

Those were the only two runs allowed by Misiorowski. He struck out six while allowing four hits and one walk.

See AP’s full MLB coverage here