ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. The Milwaukee Brewers are World Series champions for the first time, and Jacob Misiorowski was the one who delivered the decisive performance. The 24-year-old right-hander started Game 5 on regular rest and led Milwaukee to a 4-0 win over the Rays.
The question heading into the night was whether Misiorowski could recapture the dominance he showed early in the regular season. His postseason outings had been solid but not as sharp, and he had not pitched beyond five innings in any start. He answered it emphatically.
Misiorowski took a scoreless line into the late sixth inning before leaving with a calf cramp. By then Milwaukee held a 4-0 lead, the eventual final score, and the club's elite bullpen finished the job. He allowed only two hits over 5 ⅔ innings. Only one other pitcher, Tom Glavine in 1995, has thrown at least five scoreless innings while allowing two or fewer hits in a potential World Series clincher.
"It's awesome," Misiorowski said on the field after the final out. "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."
Some questioned after Game 4 whether manager Pat Murphy should have used Misiorowski to close out the bottom of the 12th inning. That criticism missed the context. Milwaukee led the series 3-0, so a Game 4 loss kept a fully rested Misiorowski available for Game 5, which is exactly how it played out.
His workload was a central theme of the year. In 2025 he threw 141 ⅓ innings across the minors, majors and playoffs, a professional career high. This season he finished at 193 ⅔, a significant jump, and the Brewers managed his innings down the stretch so he would have enough left for the postseason.
The regular season itself was remarkable. Misiorowski led the majors with a 1.80 ERA and 252 strikeouts in 174 ⅔ innings, and he also topped the league in WHIP and strikeout rate while posting the lowest hit rate. Compared with his rookie year, he raised his strikeout rate, cut his walk rate, became more efficient and, before workload limits applied, pitched deeper into games.
The future looks bright as well. He is under team control through 2031, is already a champion and is poised to win a Cy Young Award. After Milwaukee swept the Dodgers in the NLCS, Murphy noted that his team lacks a roster of Hall of Famers, but Misiorowski, along with Jackson Chourio, gives the club a strong foundation.
With another year of stamina building, there is reason to expect Misiorowski to be at least as good in 2027, possibly reaching 200 regular-season innings and helping Milwaukee chase back-to-back titles. After a dream season, the logical next step is to dream bigger.
