Jacob Misiorowski held the Dodgers to five hits and one run over six innings Saturday night, Joey Ortiz and William Contreras each hit a two-run homer, and the Brewers walked out of Los Angeles with a 4-1 win. That is the Milwaukee Brewers news worth your Sunday coffee: a division leader went into another division leader's building and took the middle game of the series behind a 24-year-old arm.
The pitching line is clean, but the shape of it is what I keep going back to. Misiorowski is famous for the fastball. The fastball is a highlight reel. Saturday, the pitch that saved his night was the slider, and the moment came with the bases loaded, in a Dodger Stadium that had just started to smell blood.
He got out of it. That is the whole story of the start.
What happened in the Brewers vs Dodgers game Saturday night?
Milwaukee got its runs in pairs. Ortiz put two on the board with one swing, Contreras did the same, and Misiorowski spent six innings making sure four was enough against a lineup that is not accustomed to being told four is enough.
| Saturday at Dodger Stadium | Number |
|---|---|
| Final score | Brewers 4, Dodgers 1 |
| Misiorowski innings | 6 |
| Hits allowed | 5 |
| Runs allowed | 1 |
| Two-run homers (Ortiz, Contreras) | 2 |
Five baserunners on hits across six innings against that group is not a soft-schedule stat line. The Dodgers had their chances, most notably the bases-loaded spot, and Milwaukee's kid answered with the breaking ball instead of trying to blow the moment up with velocity. That is the part that should worry the rest of the National League. A young power arm who only has power is a fun problem to solve. A young power arm with a second pitch he trusts in the worst count of the night is a different animal entirely.
Why Jacob Misiorowski's start matters for Milwaukee
Because it is August, and because Milwaukee keeps doing this. The Brewers do not buy their rotations at the top of the market. They grow them, they develop them, and then they hand a kid the ball in a nationally lit ballpark against the sport's most expensive lineup and let him find out what he is.
He found out. In front of Ohtani and everybody.
Contreras hitting one of the two-run homers matters too. He is the engine of that offense and the guy who catches these young arms through their growing pains, and when he is squaring the ball up in a series like this, Milwaukee looks less like a plucky story and more like a team you would not want to see in October.
One honest caveat, because I keep every note, not just the flattering ones: this is one start in one game in the middle of a long August. Six innings does not settle anything about a rotation, a division, or a matchup between two clubs sitting on top of their respective piles. It settles Saturday. Saturday is a real thing to own.
What comes next for the Brewers and Dodgers
The two of them close the series Sunday afternoon at 4:10 PM ET in Los Angeles, with Milwaukee holding the chance to leave town having won the set. For the Dodgers, the pivot is simple and unglamorous: they got shut down by a starter they had never really solved, and the response is the whole point of having that roster.
What I am watching next is whether Misiorowski's slider usage keeps climbing the rest of the month. The fastball made him famous. The slider is what turns a highlight into a career.