Brewers' Jacob Misiorowski hits 104.2 mph, gives up 2 runs against Braves

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Brewers' Jacob Misiorowski hits 104.2 mph, gives up 2 runs against Braves

2026-06-20 09:32 Last Updated At：09:40

ATLANTA (AP) — Milwaukee Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski had another strong outing against the Atlanta Braves on Friday night, topping out at 104.2 mph, but it may not have been strong enough.

Misiorowski went six innings and gave up two runs on five hits while striking out seven, but he was pulled with the Brewers trailing 2-1.

It was the first time since April 25 Misiorowski gave up more than one run in a game. He entered on a historic roll, giving up just one earned run over 54 1/3 innings in a span of eight starts.

He threw 54 pitches of at least 100 mph, according to Statcast, including a record 47 of 101 mph or higher since tracking started in 2008. The previous high for 101 mph or more was 45 by Misiorowski on June 6 at Colorado.

He topped out at 104.2 on Friday on a ball to Eli White that was low and outside in second inning.

He had gone 29 innings without allowing an earned run since May 25 before Mauricio Dubón’s two-run single in the sixth as his major league-leading ERA rose from 1.34 to 1.45.

Misiorowski has pitched well all season, but his 95-pitch, 15-strikeout, one-hit shutout of the Phillies on June 12 turned the spotlight on him like never before.

“He’s got a lot coming at him, and luckily I think a lot of that bounces off him,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said before Friday's game. “I really respect how he lives his life that way. He clearly understands what’s important, that he’s got his priorities in order and hopefully it stays that way.”

Misiorowski entered Friday's start averaging 100.1 mph on his fastball, the fastest ever for a starter in the pitch-tracker era. He hit 104.5 mph in his start against the Phillies on a night where he threw at least 103 mph 13 times, including three times in the ninth.

Braves manager Walt Weiss discussed the challenges of facing the 6-foot-7 right-hander.

"It's big-time extension with big-time velocity, so the ball is on you,” he said. “(He) throws strikes, so you have to be aggressive. You've got to be ready to fire. It's a tough guy to have two strikes against, because he's punching people out.”

This was Misiorowski's first time facing the Braves, though he has pitched at Truist Park. Misiorowski threw a scoreless eighth inning for the National League in last year's All-Star Game in Atlanta, making the team after just five career starts.

He was originally scheduled to oppose one of the pitchers he says he's long admired in the Braves' Chris Sale, but a rainout on Thursday in Atlanta pushed Sale's start to Saturday.

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A year after smashing a locker, Wyndham Clark finds himself leading at another US Open

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) — The smashed-up locker at Oakmont last year is as much a part of Wyndham Clark’s resume as the U.S. Open title he won two years before that.

Such is life in a world teeming with cell phone cameras and viral video. Such is life in professional golf, a sport built on managing failure and harnessing emotions — and where success one week, or one year, doesn’t always carry over to the next.

Clark’s spot at the top of the U.S. Open leaderboard after his second round at Shinnecock on Friday brought up expected reminders of his emotion-filled journey through a sport — a life, really — that Clark himself acknowledged nobody truly ever masters.

“I was on top of the world in my game, at least when I won the U.S. Open, and then had some good years,” the 32-year-old said. “Then, next thing you know, I’m apologizing for breaking a locker."

Much as tennis great John McEnroe will always have “You cannot be serious!” alongside the seven grand slam singles titles he won in another of sports' biggest pressure cookers, Clark will always have the broken locker at Oakmont. He will always have the underhanded fling of the driver that smashed an advertising board and snapped off the clubhead at the PGA Championship, a few months before the locker debacle.

Because of that, he’ll probably also always have his share of detractors and critics — people watching for his next burst of brilliance on the golf course, but also waiting for the next big blowup.

“I’m fierce, competitive, love the game, respect the game, and I just had a bad moment,” Clark said. “Hopefully, I can win those people back.”

His breakthrough three years ago at LA Country Club was tinged with tears and stories of the personal growth Clark had to make to reach that point.

Much of it had to do with the emotional residue left from his mom’s death in 2013 — a family tragedy that he conceded had left him spiraling.

“I didn’t show any emotion off the course," Clark explained after his victory that day. “But when I was on the golf course, I couldn’t have been angrier.”

The easy way for the armchair psychologists (and sports pundits) to explain things after that win was to conclude that Clark’s victory proved he had harnessed the emotion, turned the page and beaten back all the demons.

It’s never that simple.

“For any of us, this is a process,” Clark’s sports psychologist, Julie Elion, wrote in her new book ’Mastering Your Mental Game.” “Golfers don’t reach the top and then stay there forever.”

Clark followed the U.S. Open win with 18 months of good golf, including a win at Pebble Beach. Last year was something different — he only had two top-10 finishes, did not make the FedEx Cup playoffs and was nowhere to be seen at the Ryder Cup.

“Mastering our mental game in golf or reaching a state of growth or self-improvement in life isn’t always a permanent condition,” Elion wrote. “It takes more work over more years, and there are frequently hills and valleys.”

At Shinnecock, where Clark will head into the weekend at 7-under par, four shots ahead of Xander Schauffele and three others, he finds himself back on the rise again. He recently took to social media to tell the world he had a new girlfriend, Emily Tanner, who held hands with him as they exited the 18th green after Friday’s round of 1-under 69.

Four weeks ago, Clark won the Byron Nelson for his first victory in 28 months.

“I kind of looked at it objectively and took a bird’s-eye view on it and said, ‘OK, I’m not hitting it good off the tee, I’m not putting as good as I was,’” he explained about his turnaround. “And I said, ‘All right, I’ve got to attack that.’”

He hired a swing coach, Pat Coyner at Cherry Hills, near where Clark grew up outside of Denver.

He's been hitting his driver straighter of late. His iron game has improved dramatically (up 110 spots in the analytic-driven stat: strokes gained on approach shots). He found a new putter, which has helped him dial in dramatically over the past four weeks, during which he also finished third at the Memorial and played in the final group last Sunday at the Canadian Open.

Never more did it look in sync than Friday on No. 18, where he sank a 35-footer to finish the day in red numbers.

Now, a chance for another breakthrough. With a win, he would celebrate again. But he knows as well as anyone that it wouldn't mean the work — both on and off the course — is behind him.

“I just think with the mental game there’s ebbs and flows,” Clark said. “If you think of it as climbing Everest, sometimes you go up, sometimes you have to go down to go back up. I think that’s kind of what happens both on the golf course and off the golf course. Right now I’m trending back up, which is nice.”

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf