MLB Hitters Share What It’s Like To Face Jacob Misiorowski: ‘Swing And Pray’

It’s not hard to understand why facing Jacob Misiorowski is often a fruitless endeavor. Prior to this year, Jordan Hicks was the only starting pitcher in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008) to eclipse the 103-mph mark on a fastball. He did it twice in 2022. Misiorowski did it 143 times this year alone. Cardinals catcher Pedro Pagés saw Misiorowski’s stifling speed up close on May 25, when he was one of just two players in the lineup to record a hit off the Brewers ace, who struck out 12 batters in seven innings of work. Pagés’ advice? “Swing and pray,” he told me. “You’ve got to stay short and try to be early. That fastball’s different. That fastball’s definitely different. He throws it hard, he’s huge, and he lets it go right on you because of his extension.” Misiorowski, the likely National League Cy Young Award winner who will start Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Padres on Saturday night (FS1, 8:30 p.m. ET), led MLB in ERA (1.80), strikeouts (252), strikeout rate (37.9%) and WHIP (0.80), among many categories. He held opponents to a .157 batting average, the lowest mark ever for a qualified starter. With the hardest fastball on average of any MLB starting pitcher, it’s no wonder why stepping into the box against Misiorowski is typically a frustrating and futile effort. Of the 369 occasions this season that a starting pitcher reached 102 mph with their fastball, 365 belonged to Misiorowski. “He has the best fastball in baseball,” Mets infielder Bo Bichette said when asked about facing ‘The Miz.’ “And on top of that, he throws strikes. When you have great stuff and you throw strikes, it’s tough for hitters to get comfortable.” But it’s not just the velocity and strike-throwing that cause problems, as Pages pointed out — it’s also the place at which Misiorowski unleashes that heat. The 6-foot-7-inch right-hander has the farthest extension of any starter in MLB, allowing him to cut down the distance significantly from the 60 feet, 6 inches between the mound and home plate. For context, Misiorowski’s average of 7.6 feet of extension this season is more than a foot farther than Dylan Cease, who had the second-highest strikeout rate among MLB starters. Ask those who have faced Misiorowski, and that’s often what sticks with them. His four-seamer, which reached as high as 105.5 mph this year, feels a few ticks faster when you add on the extension. “Guys don’t get down the rubbers as far as he does, which is why I think his fastball plays way higher than what it was,” Angels infielder Zach Neto, who struck out twice in three at-bats against Misiorowski this year, told me. “It was a tough, very tough [at-bat], and I think it’s the reason why he has the success he has.” On Aug. 9, on the first of his three strikeouts against Twins infielder Royce Lewis, Misiorowski threw three straight fastballs over 103 mph. It’s not the velocity itself, Lewis agreed, that makes Misiorowski — a pitcher he described as “one of a kind” and “a unicorn” — stand out from the pack. Lewis, after all, has faced 17 different pitchers in his career who have thrown a pitch at least 100 mph against him. “The biggest difference is his extension toward the plate,” Lewis told me. “He’s cutting that distance, so that 103 really looks like 112. Your decision-making is sped up.” The Rockies concur. They faced Misiorowski twice this year, losing both matchups. The first time, Misiorowski struck out eight batters and allowed one unearned run in seven innings. Some of the best at-bats belonged to Kyle Karros, who lined out sharply in his first plate appearance, doubled in the Rockies’ lone run in his second and walked in his third. On the double, Karros swung through a slider then watched a 101.7 mph four-seamer go by to fall down 0-2. Then he battled, laying off two four-seamers just outside the zone before going the other way on a slider on the outer half. Like most others, Karros was thinking heater the whole time. Unlike most others, he was able to adjust. “I think the biggest thing for him is you can’t try to do too much,” Karros told me. “You can’t try to match power with power. All my hits were middle or opposite field, just letting him supply the power, because it is like a fastball you’ve never seen before.” The second time Misiorowski faced the Rockies a month later, he struck out 12 over five innings of one-run ball. He didn’t mess around with his secondaries that time, throwing 80% four-seam fastballs. He did not throw a single slider. In the first at-bat of the game, he threw Rockies outfielder Jake McCarthy six four-seamers over 103 mph. “A lot of people see the velo, and that’s what gets the attention,” McCarthy told me. “And, obviously, 103 is 103. … But, sort of the angle of his pitches, there’s a lot of different elements that go into it rather than just, ‘Here’s 104, try to hit it.'” Angels outfielder Wade Meckler only hit three home runs this year, but one of those three was among the 14 homers surrendered by Misiorowski in 2026. Meckler, a left-handed hitter, did not have to see a four-seamer in the at-bat. “As every hitter will tell you, they’re only on the fastball against him, because you have to be,” Meckler told me. “But he threw me that first-pitch cutter, and it’s a different look.” Meckler watched that cutter go by at 95.5 mph for a strike on the inner corner of the plate. So, Misiorowski tried the same pitch in the same spot again. Despite thinking about the four-seamer, Meckler was able to adjust to the cutter — “my brain had now, I guess, seen what that pitch looked like,” he explained — pulling a 388-foot home run to right-center. While Meckler said he would prefer to look at his season as a full body of work as opposed to his success in one at-bat, that was, clearly, among the highlights of his season. “I mean, it’s cool to say you took him deep, obviously,” Meckler said. “I’m going to be telling people that I took him deep.” It’s not the extension itself, in Meckler’s mind, that stuck out most from facing Misiorowski that day. Rather, it’s the fact that, along with his extension, Misiorowski’s velocity and low release comes a deceptive horizontal break toward his arm side. His 11.2 inches of arm-side run on his four-seamer ranked 18th among right-handers who threw at least 500 fastballs this year. That is part of the reason, Meckler believes, why Misiorowski had reverse splits this year. (Lefties had a .378 OPS against Misiorowski this year, while righties had a .582 OPS.) “For whatever reason, it creates this optical illusion for a left-handed hitter,” Meckler said. “It creates this rising effect.” The second time Misiorowski faced Meckler that day, he fired three straight four-seamers for a strikeout. “It’s the best fastball I’ve ever seen, personally,” Meckler continued. “If it was 92 mph instead of 103 mph, it’d be a lot easier. But the fact that it’s 103 mph with arm-side run, that’s, I think, what sets him apart from other guys that throw hard from that low slot.” The Angels handed Misiorowski one of his five losses on the season that day, despite the Brewers star striking out 10 and allowing just two runs over seven innings. “If I had to face him again, I’d try to be ready for a fastball and just hope I get it,” Neto said. “It’s one of those things, you don’t really have time to think about what’s coming or kind of try to see what’s coming. Because it’s 104 coming at you.” Misiorowski and three relievers — the Angels’ Ben Joyce, the Dodgers’ Edgardo Henriquez and the Padres’ Mason Miller — are the only pitchers who have eclipsed 104 mph this year. Joyce did it four times, Henriquez twice, Miller once. Miz did it 22 times, often saving it for the fiercest competition, including twice apiece to Shohei Ohtani, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber. Harper took Misiorowski deep last year, but he went 0-for-3 against the Brewers flamethrower this year. “All I can do is try to be on time,” Harper said about facing Misiorowski. “I had success my first time against him, but the next three at-bats weren’t the greatest. He’s got incredible stuff.” In his lone appearance against the Phillies this year, Misiorowski fired a 15-strikeout, complete-game shutout on just 95 pitches. The Braves beat the Phillies in the wild-card round, though, so Harper won’t get another crack at Misiorowski this season. “I haven’t faced a lot of guys like that in my career,” Harper said. “He’s got one of the best heaters out there and it plays. It plays in this league, and I don’t see it going anywhere.” FOX Sports MLB writer Deesha Thosar contributed to this story.