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 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,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
This is an eerily familiar script with recurring themes from last season — the pitching injuries, a hole in the lineup left by another injury (Max Muncy) and limping to the All-Star break. Last year, the Dodgers went 1-5 on a trip to Philadelphia and Detroit right before the break.
“I feel like this is a point in the year where we’re kind of like trying to get to the break,” Miguel Rojas said. “We played really good for a long time then we ran into two really good pitching teams that got really big arms in the bullpen. We’ve got a combination of having a couple guys down … plus a couple guys struggling. You don’t have to look too much to see that’s the reason we’re not really producing right now.
“It comes down to battling through this stretch, trying to find ways to win games these last four. But definitely, you know a team can have a stretch like this after being so good for a long time.”
It started with a bang Tuesday, 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.
“He’s good. I think you saw what I saw,” Mookie Betts said. “He commanded all his pitches. It helps that he throws 100 (mph).
“He was letting it eat.”
Before the game, 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 Rojas in the third. Rojas was stranded at third base that inning.
“I think he’s legit. Good for the game, that the guy’s doing this. Hopefully he can stay healthy because it’s a great arm,” Rojas said. “It’s really tough because he gives you a feeling of you’re better off hitting off the off(speed) pitches because he throws so many fastballs and it’s really hard to do something with it. It’s really hard to square up 100 mph with that kind of extension. It’s not just the velocity. It’s the extension and it’s kind of a low slot, a long arm. It’s a different look for sure.
“He’s good. He’s legit.”
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.
“That was a contact play, so I gave it my best and was hoping for some kind of mis-execution on their part. But the third baseman did a good job,” Ohtani said through his interpreter.
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 by William Contreras. Another ground ball defected off the gloves of two diving infielders, Rojas at third base and Mookie Betts at shortstop.
“You try to match the guy for sure. Shohei hits that homer there, you try to make that stand up. And unfortunately the fourth inning, just gave up one too many,” Kershaw said.
“The one to (Andrew) Vaughn was the mistake (an RBI single). I left that slider middle. But yeah, Contreras rolls that ball. And then (Isaac) Collins, off the glove of Mookie right there. So those are tough. You can’t really do a whole lot about that. But the Vaughn one was a mistake for sure.
“That’s just baseball. That’s just part of it. I always think that there’s a lineout waiting to happen if you get a bad hit. That’s just the way I look at it. So I don’t think about it in terms of bad luck or good luck. It’s just baseball.”
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 trio of relievers the Brewers used to close it out averaged 97.5 (Jared Koenig), 97.9 (Abner Uribe) and 99.9 (Trevor Megill) on their fastballs.
“That was a crazy game,” Conforto said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been in a game where i didn’t see a fastball under 98.”
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.
“He was really good tonight. We hadn’t seen him before, and the stuff’s really good. The fastball is pretty special,” Roberts said of Misiorowski.
“It’s hard to kind of find the silver lining when a guy strikes out 12 guys, or something like that. So I mean, it just speaks to how good he was. And they ran some other good arms out there out of the ‘pen, and today, we just really couldn’t threaten.”
