Misiorowski chased in 2nd in first game off injured list

CINCINNATI -- Brewers rookie right-hander Jacob Misiorowski was going to pitch somewhere on Friday night. The question was where.

Would he tune up at Triple-A Nashville after two weeks on the injured list for a bruised right shin? Or would he jump right into the Major League rotation for Friday’s series opener against the Reds at Great American Ball Park for the first of 19 games in 18 days?

The Brewers chose the latter, and while the night ended well with an epic 10-8 win in come-from-behind fashion, it certainly didn’t start that way.

Struggling with the mound, Misiorowski found the strike zone with just 28 of his 54 pitches while recording a meager four outs in the shortest of his eight starts so far in the Major Leagues. He was charged with five runs (all earned) on four hits and three walks with three strikeouts, and saw his ERA balloon from 2.70 at the start of the night to 3.89 by the end of a seven-run second inning by the Reds.

“I’m not going to insult anyone,” Misiorowski said when asked about the condition of the mound. “Second [inning], I just lost it. It was one of those things where I think I started overthinking about other things. You can guess what that would be from my comment before.

“Everything is a learning experience.”

The first four of Cincinnati’s seven second-inning runs were charged to Misiorowski, who hit Tyler Stephenson with one out and then walked the next three batters in a row. When he walked Spencer Steer to force in a Reds run that gave them a 2-1 lead, Misiorowski yielded to reliever DL Hall for the rest of a Cincinnati rally full of soft hits that extended their lead to 8-1. Surprisingly, Misiorowski's outing did not cost the Brewers their win streak, as Milwaukee mounted a massive comeback led by Christian Yelich's four-hit, two-homer game to tie the franchise mark with their 13th consecutive win.

Misiorowski’s return was part of a roster shakeup which had been forecast by Brewers manager Pat Murphy in recent days, which also saw outfielders Isaac Collins (paternity list) and Blake Perkins (bereavement list) deactivated.

The Brewers called up outfielder Steward Berroa and first baseman Tyler Black to fill in on the position-player side and optioned right-hander Grant Anderson back to Triple-A Nashville to make room for Misiorowski.

Misiorowski, the flamethrowing 23-year-old who took the Majors by storm in June and July and made the National League All-Star team, had been sidelined since taking a comebacker off his right shin during his July 28 start against the Cubs. He resumed throwing soon thereafter, but the club opted for a cautious approach as team officials are monitoring Misiorowski’s innings; at 96 2/3 frames between Nashville and the Majors this season, he went into Friday night just two outs shy of matching his total from last year in the Minors.

Did he have any second thoughts about coming back to the big leagues without a rehab start?

“No, I’m wholehearted with what they chose, and I’m excited for them giving me the opportunity to pitch today,” Misiorowski said. “I’m always going to throw better, I feel like, in the big leagues with more stress, so it’s better to get more experience under my belt.”

His next experience will be another big one: Misiorowski lines up for one of the games during the Brewers’ five-game, four-day series against the second-place Cubs at Wrigley Field.

“He’s going to be back out there. He’ll be fine. He’ll learn from it,” Murphy said. “This is maybe the best thing that could’ve happened, is he pitches poorly and realizes he’s got to get in a groove a little bit and put the ball where he wants to. We get to come away with a win, and his team picked him up, and he needs to realize that. His team picked him up, so you do what you need to do [next time].”

The Brewers have been planning for several weeks for the departures of Collins for the birth of his first child and Perkins for a family matter. Both have played significant roles during the winning streak, including Perkins throwing out the tying runner at home plate to end a series-opening win over the Mets on the last homestand and Collins hitting his first career walk-off home run to finish a three-game sweep two days later.

“Even if it was a surprise, it’s not a matter of who you’re bringing up, it’s a matter of not having [Collins and Perkins], you know what I mean?” Murphy said. “They’re two integral parts of this thing over the last couple of months. But there are things they have to attend to that mean far more than our game.”

Murphy said Collins is expected back with the Brewers for Monday’s doubleheader at Wrigley Field against the Cubs and indicated that Perkins would rejoin the team “shortly.” The bereavement list allows for a maximum of seven days away.