Jacob Misiorowski shrugs off a shaky start, strikes out 11 as Brewers rally past Cardinals

Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski faced a rough early script, allowing a two-run homer by Jordan Walker in the first inning and a solo shot by Iván Herrera in the third. But the Brewers right-hander responded the way a front-line starter is supposed to, extracting the rest of the innings and finishing with 11 strikeouts while carrying the club through the seventh in a 4-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1 of a doubleheader at Busch Stadium.

The outing came with a subplot for Misiorowski himself. After yielding back-to-back home runs in his most recent starts, he managed to rebound after the early damage and secure his eighth out of the game, a marker noted as the first time in his Major League career that he had surrendered multiple homers in consecutive outings. From there, he retired the final 14 batters he faced, tightening up after the third-inning mistake and preventing St. Louis from turning early runs into a larger cushion.

While the Cardinals made contact early, Milwaukee’s offense kept pace and then flipped the leverage late. The Brewers chased deficits of 2-0 and 3-2, then took the lead in the seventh when Christian Yelich delivered a go-ahead double, his third hit of the afternoon. With that margin established, the starter had a clear path to finish what he began, and he did not give the Cardinals the tying run.

Misiorowski’s control and velocity were central to the reset. After the home runs, he logged a string of 1-2-3 frames, returning for the bottom of the seventh and extending his ability to keep hitters off balance. Overall, he worked 103 pitches, and the report highlighted that 57 of them were at 100.0 mph or higher, a figure that tied for the second most in the pitch-tracking era, which began in 2008. The outing also included a fastball that touched 103.4 mph on his 102nd pitch.

The statistical punchline was the dominance of his run prevention after the damage. He allowed three earned runs on three hits in seven innings, with no walks and 11 strikeouts. At the conclusion of the game, the coverage emphasized that Misiorowski remained MLB’s leader in ERA at 1.62, strikeouts at 167, WHIP at 0.76, and opponents’ batting average at.148, underscoring how much his early homers did not change the larger story of his season.

For Milwaukee, the win matters not only because it’s a tight, single-score result, but because it reflects two-season traits at once: a rotation ace capable of regaining command after damage, and an offense that can manufacture runs even when early innings do not go to plan. For St. Louis, the Cardinals’ power still showed up quickly, but the inability to capitalize after the third inning left them chasing the comeback instead of setting the pace.

Looking ahead, the key question is whether Misiorowski’s rebound is a one-off correction or the continuation of the pattern that has defined his year. The Brewers will want him to sustain the “after the third inning” version of his outing, especially with a doubleheader in the rearview mirror and the long push toward the All-Star break and the Trade Deadline already shaping lineup choices and rotation planning. Meanwhile, St. Louis will likely look to build on what the home runs proved, hoping that the early charging approach can translate into more than brief bursts.

Misiorowski is the centerpiece here, but the game also highlighted Milwaukee’s capacity to turn momentum into runs. With Yelich driving the decisive swing in the seventh, and Misiorowski closing the door afterward, the Brewers collected a result that could resonate in later tiebreaker conversations, even though it came from a day that began with two homers against their starter.