MILWAUKEE — The game plan, manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday afternoon, was simple.
As the Dodgers prepared to face Milwaukee Brewers phenom Jacob Misiorowski, a hard-throwing and supremely talented right-hander making just his fifth MLB start, the club’s manager repeated one key multiple times during his pregame address with reporters:
“Stress him as much as we can.”
Given Misiorowski’s inexperience, the idea was to work long at-bats, drive up his pitch count and “be mindful of [making] quick outs,” Roberts said.
“If he’s got to keep repeating pitches, there might be a way for some base hits, some walks,” he added. “Again, create stress, and hopefully get a couple big hits.”
A big hit came early, with Shohei Ohtani leading off the game with his 31st home run of the season. But after that, the only stress evident at American Family Field on Tuesday came from the Dodgers’ lineup, which struck out 12 times against Misiorowski during a 3-1 loss to the Brewers. It was the Dodgers’ fifth loss in a row.
“That was super impressive,” Dodgers left-hander and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw said of Misiorowski, a 23-year-old prospect 14 years his junior. “That was unbelievable.”
The Ks came quickly for Misiorowski following Ohtani’s early blast (his ninth leadoff home run of the season, and one that set a Dodgers record for total home runs before the All-Star break).
Mookie Betts fanned on a slider in the next at-bat. Freddie Freeman whiffed on a curveball after him. Andy Pages froze on a 100.8 mph fastball, one of 21 triple-digit pitches Misiorowski uncorked from his wiry 6-foot-7, 197-pound frame.
From there, the Dodgers (56-37) didn’t stress the rookie flamethrower again until the sixth, when they failed to capitalize with runners on second and third and one out in the inning.
“Just really good stuff,” Ohtani said of Misiorowski, through interpreter Will Ireton. “Aggressive in the zone. But what really stood out to me was his command and control. The [third-inning] at-bat where there’s a runner on base, if I drove that guy in, it would have been 2-0. So I think the situation would’ve been a little different.”
Instead, the wasted chance in the sixth inning became the game’s defining sequence.
Ohtani drew a leadoff walk and Betts slapped a single through the infield. With one out, however, Ohtani was thrown at the plate trying to score from third on Pages’ chopper up the line — making an aggressive, but proper, read in a game in which the Dodgers had long before conceded that runs would be tough to come by.
“It’s hard to kind of find the silver lining when a guy strikes out 12 guys,” Roberts said. “It never feels good when you lose five in a row. But today, I think, it was one of those days where the guy’s stuff — it didn’t matter who was out there. He was really good tonight.”
After Michael Conforto grounded out to first to retire the side, Misiorowski skipped back to the dugout with a few thumps of his chest, ending a six-inning, one-run start that saw all 12 strikeouts come in the first five frames (tying the most strikeouts by any MLB pitcher in the first five innings of a game since 2008).
“I know him now, huh?” Kershaw deadpanned, after saying the day prior he knew Misiorowski only for his big velocity and an awkward ankle roll that ended his hitless debut four weeks prior.
“It was really special. I mean, everything. Obviously the velo, but he’s got four pitches, commands the ball and made it — I mean, I don’t know how you hit that, honestly. That’s just really tough.”
Kershaw produced a solid six-inning, two-run start of his own in a vastly different way. With his fastball still topping out at only 90 mph, and the 37-year-old managing only three strikeouts in his first start since joining the 3,000 club last week, Kershaw instead navigated the Brewers with a string of soft contact.
“I felt better for sure,” Kershaw said, after lowering his ERA to 3.38. “Was able to throw the ball to both sides of the plate today, which helped a lot. Just kind of had more of a mix. It wasn’t as predictable as I have been recently.”
The only problem: The Brewers still found a way to build a rally in the bottom of the fourth.
After singling on a swinging bunt up the third base line his first time up, Milwaukee catcher William Contreras did the same thing to lead off the inning. Then Jackson Chourio beat the shift on a ground ball the other way.
That set up Andrew Vaughn for a line-drive single on a slider over the outside edge of the plate, tying the score. In the next at-bat, Isaac Collins also found a hole in the infield, sneaking another ground-ball single between Betts and Rojas on the left side of the infield to give Milwaukee a 2-1 lead.
“Those are tough,” Kershaw said of the infield hits. “You can’t really do a whole lot about that. But the Vaughn one was a mistake for sure.”
Even after Misiorowski departed, a shorthanded Dodgers lineup (which was once again without injured veterans Teoscar Hernández, Tommy Edman and Max Muncy, as well as primary catcher Will Smith on a scheduled off day) couldn’t claw its way back.
The Brewers’ bullpen retired all nine batters it faced. Sal Frelick took Kirby Yates deep for an insurance run in the eighth. And on a day the Dodgers intended to create stress, they were instead dealing with the headache of a season-long five-game losing streak.
“I don’t think we saw a fastball under 98 today as a team,” Kershaw said. “So you can talk about struggling all you want, but this was just a tough game. I can’t give up any runs. That’s just the way it goes.”
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