X-Factor: Those OTHER Starting Pitchers
Over the course of the regular season, it gradually became impossible to start talking about the Milwaukee Brewers without mentioning Jacob Misiorowski within the first sentence or two.
What he accomplished was legendary, leading the majors in ERA, FIP, WHIP, strikeouts, K/9 and H/9. His 232 ERA+ was the highest mark by a qualified pitcher (excluding 2020) since Pedro Martínez’s historic 2000 campaign (291).
But those Red Sox didn’t even make the postseason because the rest of the starting rotation fell somewhere between “mediocre” and “terrible.”
The Miz can’t make every postseason start for the Brew Crew. Logan Henderson should be a strong second fiddle behind Misiorowski.
In 18 starts this season, he had a 2.47 ERA, a 0.84 WHIP and 10.1 K/9. Among pitchers who logged at least 90 innings, that WHIP was good for second-best in the majors, behind only his teammate at 0.80. Henderson has yet to allow more than three runs in an appearance this season, going at least five innings in all but the first one.
But Robert Gasser in Game 3?
A Dustin May / Shane Drohan / Kyle Harrison conundrum—or Misiorowski on three days’ rest—in Game 4?
We know better than to just assume that every Miz start is going to be a Milwaukee win, right? It worked out that way in 20 of his final 24 starts of the regular season, but note that the Tigers went just 3-3 in Tarik Skubal’s postseason starts over the past two seasons—never once giving him more than three runs of support.
The soon-to-be-named NL Cy Young winner needs some support from both the bats and the starting pitchers around him.