Jacob Misiorowski wraps breakout Brewers year with World Series title and a reminder that best is yet to come

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- When the Brewers took the field for Game 5 of the World Series, they did so with their ace on regular rest. All that stood between them and their first World Series championship was a win with the best possible formula that they could draw up on the lineup card. 

If there was any question, it was if Misiorowski could channel some of his early season magic. In the playoffs, he hadn't been bad, but hadn't been nearly as dominant as in the regular season. He also hadn't gone more than five innings in a start.

He stepped up, as championship-caliber athletes do. He was forced to leave the game late in the sixth inning due to calf cramp, but the Brewers already had a 4-0 lead (the eventual final score) and handed things off to their elite bullpen on cruise control. Misiorowski came through with 5 ⅔ innings of scoreless ball, allowing only two hits. He stifled the Rays until the game felt like it was elementary. Only two pitchers have ever recorded a scoreless start of 5+ innings with two or fewer hits allowed in a potential World Series clincher: Misiorowski and some guy named Tom Glavine in 1995.

And behind their ace, the inevitable Brewers are World Series champions.

"It's awesome," Misiorowski said on the field after the Brewers clinched. "It's awesome for this team, it's awesome for the city of Milwaukee. I just made it work. It didn't matter how we won tonight, just that we won." 

There were questions in the aftermath of Game 4 about whether Brewers manager Pat Murphy should have brought Misiorowski in for the bottom of the 12th to close things out. There shouldn't have been. It wasn't Game 7. The Brewers were up 3-0 in the series. Losing Game 4 meant they had full-strength Misiorowski waiting to close the door in Game 5. Unsurprisingly, he did exactly that, despite likely being on fumes from his 2026 workload. 

In 2025, Misiorowski only worked 141 ⅓ innings between the minors, majors and playoffs. That was a career high in his professional career. In 2026, he finishes with 193 ⅔. It's a monster leap, and it's why the Brewers held his workloads in check down the stretch. They needed something left in the tank to achieve the ultimate goal. That was the plan all along: for him to do exactly what he did in Game 5. 

And we're only scratching the proverbial surface here. Remember what a phenom Misiorowski was in the regular season, especially early in the year? He was the must-see player in the sport. Even with his workload monitored, he finished the season with a ridiculous 1.80 ERA (leading the majors) and 252 strikeouts (again, leading the majors) in 174 ⅔ innings. He also led the majors in WHIP, strikeout rate and had the lowest hit rate. 

Between his rookie season and this year, "The Miz" ratcheted up his strikeout rate, plummeted his walk rate, improved his efficiency and, early in the year before workload became a concern, worked much deeper into games. As a rookie, he was a talent to dream on. As a sophomore, he was the dream. He's already as decorated as any pitcher the Brewers have ever had (with the Brewers, that is). 

Now, let's keep a few things in mind. Misiorowski is: 

24 years old;

Under team control through 2031;

Already a World Series champion;

Soon to be a Cy Young winner.

After the Brewers swept the Dodgers in the NLCS, Murphy remarked on how they don't have a bunch of Hall of Famers, an indirect shot at Los Angeles' star-studded lineup, but there's an argument that Misiorowski has a strong foundation right now (so does Jackson Chourio, by the way). 

Given the improvements that Misiorowski made from Year 1 to Year 2 in the majors, there's every reason to expect that next year he'll be just as good, only he'll have built up more stamina for late in the season. 

Could he go 200 innings in the regular season next year and lead the Brewers to back-to-back championships while winning a second Cy Young? I don't see why not. That would have sounded like a pipe dream to Brewers fans if we got in a time machine to the aftermath of last year's sweep at the hands of those dastardly, mega-payroll Dodgers. But, you see, Misiorowski just had a dream season. With a guy with his level of talent, the only answer is to dream bigger.

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