What began as a bummer of a day ended in the best of ways for the Milwaukee Brewers.
Shaking off the breaking news that star outfielder Jackson Chourio is going to miss the next two to four weeks with a fractured left hand, Jacob Misiorowski delivered one of the best opening day starts in franchise history and the offense went wild in a 14-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox at American Family Field on Thursday, March 26.
Misiorowski set a franchise record for opening day with 11 strikeouts in five innings and every starter had a either a hit or drove in a run to power the team’s second-largest run output in a season lid-lifter.
Milwaukee beat the California Angels, 15-9, in 1996.
Jake Bauers – starting in left field in place of the injured Chourio – and Sal Frelick homered, William Contreras had a bases-clearing double and Joey Ortiz also drove in a pair.
Misiorowski’s first opening day start got off to a rocky beginning when leadoff man Chase Meidroth took the right-hander’s sixth offering, a 99.5-mph fastball, 417 feet out to left-center.
He rebounded by striking out the next three hitters, however – a theme that would continue for Misiorowski in his outing.
His counterpart, former Brewers farmhand Shane Smith, then found himself in a jam in the second when Frelick walked with one out, David Hamilton reached on a catcher’s interference and Garrett Mitchell walked.
That fittingly brought No. 9-hitting Ortiz to the plate – he of the franchise-record 31 plate appearances with the bases loaded in 2025 (.167 average, 16 RBI) – and he blooped a run-scoring single just over the glove of Meidroth to knot the proceedings at 1-1.
After Brice Turang struck out, Contreras yanked a bases-clearing double down the third-base line that gave Milwaukee its first lead at 4-1.
Misiorowski, who struck out a pair in the second, followed up with two more in the third and then three in the fourth as he worked his way around a single and walk in the frame.
His second strikeout in the fourth, coming against Everson Pereira, gave Misiorowski nine – a franchise record on opening day. Freddy Peralta and Ben Sheets had shared the previous mark of eight, with Peralta reaching it in 2025.
The Brewers tacked onto their advantage in the bottom of the fourth when Hamilton opened with an infield single, advanced to second on a Mitchell bunt and scored on an Ortiz single.
Then with two outs, the White Sox elected to put Contreras on to face Christian Yelich, who responded with a run-scoring single to center, upping Milwaukee’s lead to 6-1.
Misiorowski came full circle in his start by fanning Meidroth for his 11th and final strikeout, and when Colson Montgomery fouled out to Contreras, Misiorowski’s day was done at 94 pitches with just two hits and two walks allowed.
All told, Misiorowski induced a career-high 25 swings and misses while topping out at 101.1 mph on the radar gun.
Milwaukee’s offense eliminated any doubts as to the final outcome in the bottom of the fifth when Bauers singled and Frelick followed by parking one on the very next pitch to make it an 8-1 game.
Five walks and a pair of singles pushed three runs across in the sixth, then a three-run blast out to right by Bauers put up another three spot in the seventh for the Brewers.
Aaron Ashby, Grant Anderson, DL Hall and the newly acquired Jake Woodford combined to finish the game, with Woodford allowing Chicago’s only other run in the ninth on a leadoff homer to Munetaka Murakami – the ex-Japanese star’s first major-league hit.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers 14, White Sox 2: Jacob Misiorowski dazzles, offense dominates
Reporting by Todd Rosiak, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
