Jacob Misiorowski is the Gen Z showman baseball has sorely needed

In the game’s long, winding history, almost half-a-million men have started a Major League Baseball game, and perhaps only a handful have been more dominant than Jacob Misiorowski was on Friday night.

Facing a bonafide Philadelphia Phillies lineup – anchored by Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner – Misiorowski, the Milwaukee Brewers’ 24-year-old phenom, authored an astounding complete-game, one-hit, zero-walk, fifteen-strikeout shutout for the ages.

Misiorowski needed just 95 pitches – 74 of which were searing strikes – to face the minimum 27 batters, as Schwarber mustered the only Philly hit and was subsequently erased on a double play.

No ‘Maddux’ – a shutout requiring less than 100 pitches – has ever featured more strikeouts. Since at least 1900, meanwhile, no pitcher facing the minimum has ever whiffed more batters. (1) A lineup has scarcely been so overmatched, and young Jacob made it look easy.

“To be honest,” Misiorowski told reporters after his latest masterpiece, “the first inning, the first few innings, I feel like I didn’t have it all that well. I was just hoping they would swing.” (2)

Swing they did.

A lot. 

Mostly catching air.

And records tumbled by the inning.

In the first, Misiorowski struck out Schwarber with a 104.5-mph fastball – the fastest tracked pitch ever uncorked by a starting pitcher in baseball history. (2) 

In the second, Misiorowski threw nine pitches for nine strikes and was denied an immaculate inning only by an Alec Bohm groundout.

Through three, Misiorowski retired nine and struck out eight – seven swinging – on 34 pitches, as the game announcers struggled to recall a more devastating turn through a batting order.

All night long, the freakish fiend bombarded the zone with unprecedented heat and rare precision. Never once did the Phillies work a three-ball count against Misiorowski, who still fired at 103-mph in the ninth.

When all was said and done, Milwaukee won, 6-0, and Misiorowski finished with a Game Score of 100 – a mark topped only thrice this century and six times ever in a nine-inning performance. (3) (4) Among that sextet, replete with no-hitters and perfect games, only three pitchers – Max Scherzer, Kerry Wood and Nolan Ryan – recorded more strikeouts in their pièces de résistance. Such is the company Misiorowski keeps.

Against Philadelphia, 58 of Misiorowski’s 95 pitches were recorded at 100-mph or more. That, unsurprisingly, is an all-time record, although The Miz set that mark just two weeks ago, in another Rembrandt against St Louis. In fact, Jacob has the top three games with the most 100-mph+ pitches. Oh, and the 23 fastest individual pitches by a starter in baseball history all belong to Misiorowski, as well. We have simply never seen anybody quite like him. (1)

There is more to the marvel than high heat, though. There is the iconic nickname, the signature strut, the unapologetic chutzpah. There is the deceptive 6-foot-7 frame. There are the fist-pumps and celebratory exclamations, the cussing and the galloping back to the dugout after retiring the side. You cannot take your eyes off The Miz, a Savannah Bananas-type showman in a league of suppressed emotion. 

The results match the aesthetics, too. Every time he takes the mound, Misiorowski mauls the almanac. His Philly magnum opus was but the latest episode in a fast-moving, must-watch, high-octane drama. To wit, in his last eight starts, Misiorowski has an 0.17 ERA – the lowest in any eight-game span (excluding openers) since ERA became an official statistic. The game’s trusty abacus can barely articulate his dominance. (1)

On the season, Misiorowski is now 8-2 with a microscopic 1.34 ERA, a ridiculous 0.736 WHIP, and a mind-boggling 131 strikeouts in 87 innings pitched. Just a year after debuting to much fanfare, The Miz has tamed his early erraticism to become one of very best pitchers in the game. In terms of raw talent, there is no contemporary equal, and perhaps only Paul Skenes, Tarik Skubal and Shohei Ohtani (at their best) can match Misiorowski’s current level of execution. 

This, for baseball, is a gift from the gods. For so long, the game has searched for stars with the skill and swagger to beguile the diminished attention spans of a younger generation. To cut through these days, amid a relentless torrent of amorphous content, things – news, products, events, sports – must be rapid, emphatic and slathered in dopamine. If the dulled amygdala is not titillated within three seconds, the modern consumer scrolls on, seeking instant gratification, casting verbose art into the abyss. 

The Miz is readymade and prepackaged to capture those fickle eyeballs – his freakish fastball quick enough, bold enough and outlandish enough to emasculate a helpless hitter in the aching void between TikToks. To that end, Jacob Misiorowski is a priceless commodity, designed by and for the omnipotent algorithm. Jacob Misiorowski is the game’s cheat code back to mainstream intrigue. Jacob Misiorowski is the Gen Z showman baseball has sorely needed.

In terms of pure, undistllled ability, Misiorowski may be the best pitcher I have ever seen. Sure, I, like you, have grown accustomed to pitchers regularly hitting triple digits on the radar gun. I have even become slightly desensitised to guys reaching 101-mph and 102-mph, because we see it so often. However, to comfortably sit at 103-mph, even late in games, as Misiorowski does, is extraterrestrial. Watching The Miz, one is almost disappointed when he flings a 101-mph heater. Why? Because it seems only a matter of time before he breaks into another stratosphere by hitting 106-mph or 107-mph. That such feats seem feasible for this kid speaks to his alien ability.

One expects a certain wildness at such extremes of velocity. The aforementioned Ryan, of course, is the all-time leader in strikeouts and walks – a microcosm of the power pitching paradox. On the contrary, though, Misiorowski has honed enviable command since his exhilarating big league debut, and his evolving arsenal contains far more than a historic fireball. Misiorowski’s changeup touches 92-mph, similar to the fastballs of thoroughbreds like Logan Webb, Ranger Suárez and Shōta Imanaga. The Miz also has a 95-mph slider, plus a devilish cutter. He throws them all for strikes and is learning how to prime the game’s ultimate weapon.

Taken together, then, Misiorowski presents a package of ability and charisma unparalleled in such a young starting pitcher. This is cinematic stuff, quite frankly, plucked from the fictional realm of fantasy. This is Sammy Bodeen in Talent for the Game. This is Sidd Finch without the hiking boot. This is a video game prodigy brought to life, and we should savour every moment of his ascent.

Yes, my enthusiasm may be flecked with hyperbole. And sure, it is still very early, and a lot can go wrong, as it very often does with such prodigious arms. The entire phenomenon has a giddy supernova vibe – exploding, burning and fading with colossal rapidity – that begs for verifying longevity. And falling in love with a young starting pitcher is a recipe for heartbreak as shoulder tendons and elbow ligaments become ticking time bombs. But it is impossible not to be engrossed by The Miz. Undoubtedly, there is a ball at the back of one’s throat watching him pitch – an anxious byproduct of such a slender frame emitting such blistering velocity with such regularity – but the results are enchanting, and the aura is irresistible. You cannot look away.

Of course, some dislike the patented histrionics, considering them braggadocious, but that is another manifestation of Misiorowski’s generational difference, too. Jacob has no time for baseball’s stuffy, unspoken ‘code,’ and such swashbuckling iconoclasm resonates with younger, more rebellious fans. Such insurgency asserts Misiorowski as the embodiment of his generation.

In my lifetime, very few starting pitchers have been must-see, call-your-friends, rearrange-your-week appointment television. Roger, Randy and Pedro. Clayton, Kerry and King Félix. Josh Beckett and Tim Lincecum as kids. Jacob DeGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Matt Harvey intermittently. Dice-K amid gyroball mania. José Fernández. Scherzer. Skenes and Ohtani today. Jacob Misiorowski is right there, atop that list, a force demanding attention, and the sport needs to feed him.

So, look out for his game, people. Change plans if they clash with a Misiorowski start. Introduce this guy to colleagues, family members and acquaintances who are otherwise ambivalent to baseball. If The Miz does not sway them, captivate them, and compel them to get involved, nothing will. Nobody will. The kid is that good, and we only get one chance to savour his meteoric rise.

Sources

1. Langs, Sarah. MLB.com. [Online] June 13, 2026. https://www.mlb.com/news/jacob-misiorowski-15-strikeout-one-hitter-facts-and-stats.

2. McCalvy, Adam. MLB.com. [Online] June 13, 2026. https://www.mlb.com/news/jacob-misiorowski-hardest-strikeout-pitch-by-starter.

3. Castrovince, Anthony. MLB.com. [Online] June 13, 2026. https://www.mlb.com/news/jacob-misiorowski-shutout-more-dominant-than-no-hitters.

4. Baseball-Reference. [Online] https://www.baseball-reference.com/tools/share.fcgi?id=NL00Y.