Misiorowski continues to weather storm of 2nd-half struggles 

CHICAGO -- Jacob Misiorowski was on top of the baseball world, an All-Star with only five big league starts under his belt. Now he’s experiencing what it’s like to struggle.

The same could be said for the Brewers, but only if you believe their first three-game losing streak in more than three months is enough to meet the definition of “struggle.”

Misiorowski’s bumpy second half continued with a disjointed Wrigley Field debut in the Brewers’ 4-3 loss to the Cubs on Wednesday, when the rookie right-hander began and ended his four-inning outing with stretches of six-up, six-down but was undone by a wild, four-batter stretch in the third that sent Milwaukee to its first three-game skid since May 7-10.

“We didn’t get the outcome we wanted, but we showed tremendous heart and tremendous relentlessness,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “I mean, Miz’s start, that’s not good enough. He lost his, whatever you want to call it, focus. That’s not good enough.”

Certainly, nobody is panicking, said unofficial club captain Christian Yelich. The Brewers still own the best record in the Majors, four-games clear of the next-closest competitor. And they remain six games ahead in the National League Central standings, though with Wednesday’s victory the Cubs claimed the season series and will own the tiebreaker in the event of a tie at the end of the regular season.

The Brewers, of course, don’t want that to come into play, and to make sure everyone departed for the team hotel with the proper context, Murphy gathered the group Wednesday night to share how proud he was of the way they fought during a ninth inning that saw the Brewers cut a 4-2 deficit to 4-3 on Danny Jansen’s pinch-hit, two-out RBI single before William Contreras’ bases-loaded lineout ended the game.

“When the wind’s blowing, you can’t try to fight it or you’ll break the branches,” Murphy said. “You let the branches blow. We’ll come back and reset.”

Yelich said the same thing, in his own way.

“I’m happy with the way we’re competing,” Yelich said. “Are things not going our way right now? Sure, but that was coming. That’s how this sport works. Nobody is panicking. I know that would be a good narrative, and that would be a cool thing to have out there, this being full panic after three losses.

“But [the Cubs] are a very good team. So are we. We’re going to square off probably more times than just tomorrow. We’re going to probably see them at some point during the postseason and it’ll be a good series.”

Getting Misiorowski back on track would help. He was 4-1 with a 2.81 ERA through his first four Major League starts when he represented Milwaukee in the All-Star game, the earliest invitation in history. He was sharp in a planned short start in Seattle coming out of the break, but labored through a 40-pitch first inning against the Cubs on July 28 and was hit by a comebacker that landed him on the injured list with a bruised right shin. When he returned from the IL at the start of this road trip to face the Reds in Cincinnati, Misiorowski surrendered more earned runs (five) than he recorded outs (four) in a game that will be better remembered as the night the Brewers slugged their way back from an 8-1 deficit for victory No. 13 in their franchise-record 14-game winning streak.

All of that was the backdrop for Wednesday, when Misiorowski was perfect through two innings before walking Owen Caissie, Dansby Swanson and Matt Shaw to lead off the third. Sometimes command lapses happen to pitchers with long levers, such as 6-foot-7 Misiorowski, but Murphy doesn’t think that was it.

“It’s definitely mental,” Murphy said. “There’s nothing wrong with his levers, you know what I mean? He lost it. The situation got away from him.”

Shaw’s at-bat was the most taxing, an 11-pitch marathon that included seven foul balls. Misiorowski could be seen smiling between pitches as the battle wore on and on.

“I’m just kind of continuing to grind and battle. And he’s got his own process,” Shaw said. “Maybe smiling is part of it. For me, it was just grind out the at-bat and do whatever I can do to get on base.”

When Misiorowski finds himself in that kind of situation, searching for his command, how does he break out of it?

“I think the easiest part is going back to what I know and trusting my stuff,” he said.

Does he feel like he did that?

“Yeah, obviously a batter too late,” Misiorowski said.

That’s because Michael Busch cleared the bases with a double to the left-center field gap, giving the Cubs the lead for good. And while Misiorowski rebounded to deliver six more outs, he remained winless since the All-Star break.

“It’ll come. It’ll be,” Misiorowski said. “You just have to weather the storm and ride the rollercoaster of games.”

The same goes for the Brewers.

“If everybody thought we were going to go undefeated the rest of the season,” Yelich said, “then you don’t watch baseball. This is part of a baseball season. Things don’t go your way all the time. We’re a very good baseball team and we’re very resilient. We’re not happy that we lost tonight, but we’re overall pretty happy with how we competed.”