MILWAUKEE — It was a pitching matchup for the ages – 23 (phenom of the moment Jacob Misiorowski) versus 37 (future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw).
The Dodgers’ sputtering offense was no match for Misiorowski’s state-of-the-art arsenal. They managed just four hits and 12 strikeouts in six innings against the hard-throwing right-hander and lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, 3-1, on Tuesday night.
The loss was the Dodgers’ fifth in a row, their longest losing streak since another five-game skid in May 2024. The Dodgers have been outscored 41-8 during this losing streak, managing just one run four times in the five games.
It started with a bang, though.
Shohei Ohtani got an 0-and-2 curveball that stayed up and hit it 431 feet for a leadoff home run. His 31st home run of the season is the most by any Dodgers hitter before the All-Star break and includes nine leadoff home runs.
Misiorowski became a video game character after that. He struck out eight of the next 11 Dodgers batters and had the first 10-strikeout game of his five-start major-league career by the end of the fourth inning.
Nineteen of his first 63 pitches were 100 mph or higher. Nine of those hit 101 mph. Dodgers batters swung and missed 21 times in the first six innings – nine times at a fastball that averaged 99.7 mph, eight times at a sharp-breaking curveball.
Before the game, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he hoped the Dodgers’ lineup could “stress” Misiorowski, test the inexperienced rookie and get his pitch count up.
It’s nice to have a plan.
But Misiorowski got through five innings on 74 pitches, allowing just two baserunners in the four innings after Ohtani’s leadoff home run – a two-out single by Dalton Rushing in the second inning and a leadoff double by Miguel Rojas in the third. Rojas was stranded at third base that inning.
The Dodgers finally made Misiorowski uncomfortable in the sixth inning.
Ohtani drew a leadoff walk and Mookie Betts singled on a ground ball through the right side. When Freddie Freeman grounded out to first base, both runners advanced.
But Ohtani took off from third base on Andy Pages’ ground ball down the line and was out by 10 feet when Brewers third baseman Andrew Monasterio made a nice back-handed play and threw home. Michael Conforto grounded out softly to end that inning.
Kershaw couldn’t match Misiorowski’s velocity, but he skinned cats in other ways.
The Brewers got to him just once, bunching together five singles in the fourth inning to produce two runs. The collection of hits weren’t hit particularly hard. It started with a 56.6 mph dribbler down the third base line. Another ground ball defected off the gloves of two diving infielders, Miguel Rojas at third base and Mookie Betts at shortstop.
That was enough to give the Brewers a lead and they made it stand up after Misiorowski left. Sal Frelick added a solo home run off of Dodgers reliever Kirby Yates in the eighth inning and Brewers relievers retired the final nine Dodgers in order.
The Dodgers’ offense has batted .199 during the five-game losing streak and have struck out 26 times in the first two games against the Brewers.
More to come on this story.
