WASHINGTON -- A second star player in the past three days has landed on the injured list for the Brewers, who placed rookie All-Star Jacob Misiorowski on the 15-day IL on Sunday morning with a left tibia contusion, retroactive to Thursday.
It comes just two days after outfielder Jackson Chourio was placed on the IL with a right hamstring strain.
Misiorowski was set to start in the finale vs. the Nationals, but he was replaced as starter by Logan Henderson, who was called up from Triple-A Nashville as the corresponding move. Henderson, the Brewers' No. 5 prospect, has made four starts for Milwaukee this season, including three starts in May when Jose Quintana went on the IL. Henderson is 3-0 with a 1.71 ERA over 21 innings.
It was more of the same for Henderson on Sunday afternoon at Nationals Park, as he allowed just one run on three hits and two walks with four K’s over 4 1/3 innings in the Crew’s 14-3 victory. The win -- which was Milwaukee’s third straight game with double-digit hits and featured Brice Turang’s first career multihomer outing (two HRs) -- earned the Brewers their first season series sweep of the Nationals in franchise history.
“I thought Logan was great,” manager Pat Murphy said. “You know, he’s been through it now. How many starts has he made? Five? He’s given us a chance in all five.”
The Brewers have won all five of Henderson’s starts, though he’s gotten a no-decision in two of them. He even had family in attendance on Sunday, as his dad and step-mom were in Scranton, Pa., for his scheduled start for the Sounds on Saturday before he was scratched and sent to D.C. -- so, they drove him down since there weren’t any flights.
Henderson should get another start back in Milwaukee vs. the Mets next weekend. That would enable Misiorowski to come back on Aug. 15 for the series-opener on the road in Cincinnati.
“That’s all I’ve been looking for is another opportunity,” Henderson said. “Just super glad to be here. [My] focus today was just to help the team, and I’m glad the boys got the win.”
It’s been a season of firsts for Misiorowski, who made the NL All-Star team after five dominant starts in just a month after his June 12 debut. This is his first IL placement in the Majors (he was on the Minor League IL once in 2023 when he was with Double-A Biloxi). The 23-year-old is 4-1 with a 2.70 ERA in seven starts, while his 112 pitches of 100-plus mph entering Sunday are second in the Majors to only the Reds’ Hunter Greene.
Sunday’s start was supposed to be a chance for Misiorowski to show his ability to grow. Last Monday against the Cubs, he had endured a 40-pitch first inning in which he took a line drive from Seiya Suzuki off his left shin, leading to the contusion.
Misiorowski didn’t have any major issues from the contusion at the time, and he was lauded by his team for how he finished the start: 10 straight batters retired and three scoreless frames. But his shin wasn’t healing as quickly as he, or the team, would have liked. He still felt soreness from it during his midweek bullpen session, and the Crew noticed his velocity was slightly down.
“We noticed during the week -- really, our pitching guys noticed during the week -- that the throwing programs and the bullpen, something wasn’t right,” manager Pat Murphy said, “and we wanted to be smart about taking care of the kid. He’s got a big future, and hopefully -- he’ll try to push through it because he’s young, and we want to keep him from making those types of decisions unless we know he’s 100%.”
While Misiorowski was, of course, willing -- and eager -- to pitch through the injury, the decision was made to place him on the IL. He’ll miss two starts but plans to pitch through the healing process so that he’ll be ready after the minimum time on the list.
“It was basically like, ‘This is what it’s going to be,’” Misiorowski said. "Obviously I was trying to fight it a little bit, trying to throw, but I understand. And you know, they’re looking out for me.”
The move is also, in some ways, a blessing in disguise as it will help the Brewers limit Misiorowski’s innings a bit more, without detracting from singular starts with a pitch or inning count just yet.
“Yeah I mean, obviously it’ll help with the mileage and stuff,” Misiorowski said. “Two starts get knocked off. So I mean -- but I don’t think there’s any concern with it. It’s just, you know, [I’ll] go until the end of the year.”