Putting Jacob Misiorowski's historic 15-K outing into context

          Where does Jacob Misiorowski's 15-K, one-hit shutout rank among the best pitching performances of the last decade? John Fisher/Getty Images
          • David SchoenfieldJun 15, 2026, 07:00 AM ET
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            • Covers MLB for ESPN.com
            • Former deputy editor of Page 2
            • Been with ESPN.com since 1995

          It was apparent Jacob Misiorowski was doing something special on Friday night when, despite being without wi-fi and living in a cell-phone dead zone, I saw a few stray text messages that managed to get through the half-bar of service.

          "Miz gonna strike out 23 tonight."

          "Not a bad start, 9 K's in 3.1 IP."

          "Best I can tell, the record for K's in a Maddux is 13. Miz has tied it and only thrown 75 thru 7. Hope they let him roll."

          "Miz did it! One-hit Maddux with 15 K's."

          "Wow, amazing!"

          The Milwaukee Brewers' 24-year-old right-hander had pitched the game of the season, the game of the decade, maybe the game for all decades: a one-hit shutout with 15 strikeouts while throwing just 95 pitches and facing the minimum 27 batters.

          Here are some of the eye-popping, history-making facts from the 6-0 win over the Philadelphia Phillies in front of 40,000 very loud fans in Milwaukee:

          1. With a game score of 100, it was just the 17th nine-inning performance with a game score of 100 or higher (Kerry Wood holds the record at 105 for his 20-strikeout one-hitter for the Chicago Cubs in 1998). Three of those were perfect games from Sandy Koufax (101), Matt Cain (101) and Randy Johnson (100), making Misiorowski just the fourth pitcher to face the minimum 27 batters with a game score of at least 100.

          2. Misiorowski became the third pitcher since 1900 with at least 15 strikeouts and no more than one baserunner allowed in a shutout, matching Clayton Kershaw in his no-hitter in 2014 (he struck out 15 with only an error ruining his perfect game) and Max Scherzer in his no-hitter on the weekend of the 2015 season (17 strikeouts, with, again, only an error blemishing a perfect game). Scherzer's game score of 104 ranks second highest all time for a nine-inning game while Kershaw's is third at 102.

          3. A "Maddux" -- named in honor of Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, the king of pitching efficiency -- is a complete game while throwing fewer than 100 pitches. Since the pitch-counting era began in 1988, only Kershaw in 2017 and Tarik Skubal last year had pitched a Maddux with even 13 strikeouts (and Kershaw allowed two runs in his game). Misiorowski upped that K total by two.

          4. In the first inning, Misiorowski struck out Kyle Schwarber on a pitch on the outside corner of the plate that clocked in at 104.5 mph, topping his own record for fastest pitch thrown by a starting pitcher since pitch clocking began in 2008. On his final pitch of the game, Misiorowski blew away Justin Crawford on a 103.1-mph fastball, the hardest pitch ever thrown that deep into an outing. In total, he threw 58 pitches at 100 mph or faster. The Phillies swung at 34 of them and whiffed on 21.

          With a new modem in hand on Saturday, I went back and watched the performance.

          The brilliance was in its simplicity. One fastball after another, 69 out of his 95 pitches, thrown with the power and precision of an F1 engine: fastballs riding up-and-in to right-handed batters (poor Trea Turner had no chance), overpowering at the top of the zone, dotting the bottom of the zone at the knees. Misiorowski fanned Schwarber looking in the seventh with a 100.6-mph fastball at the knees, clearly in the strike zone. Schwarber stood helplessly at the plate; home plate umpire Chad Fairchild apparently didn't see the pitch since he called it a ball. Catcher William Contreras had to ask for the call to be overturned.

          It wasn't just the fastballs though. Like most starting pitchers today, Misiorowski has a full arsenal of pitches: He mixed in 11 sliders, seven cutters, four curveballs and four changeups. It's hardly fair.

          "A masterpiece from the Miz," Brewers announcer Jeff Levering proclaimed after the final out.

          As Joe Sheehan wrote, "There was a ruthlessness that called to mind the way Pedro Martinez wiped out lineups at his peak."

          That sounds right. Peak Pedro mixed upper 90s heat with maybe the best changeup in the history of the game -- and wasn't shy about knocking a batter down. Nolan Ryan pitched with a similar ruthlessness and is perhaps the only starting pitcher in history who could match Misiorowski's velocity, but Misiorowski is suddenly Nolan Ryan with better control. That doesn't mean he's going to match Ryan's seven no-hitters, but this game came on the one-year anniversary of Misiorowski's debut and his improvement in command from just a year ago has been remarkable. He didn't go to a single three-ball count in this outing and only had five two-ball counts.

          After that final strikeout, Misiorowski walked through the handshake line with his teammates, smiling like a kid about to head to the pizza parlor after dominating Scott's Tux Rentals in a Little League game. Behind the smile, however, is a pitcher currently living on another plane. Misiorowski has allowed two runs, just one earned, over his past eight starts, a span covering 54⅓ innings. Batters have hit .105 off him in this stretch and he has 80 strikeouts to just nine walks. Sarah Langs reported that Misiorowski's 0.17 ERA is the lowest over an eight-start span since earned runs became official in 1913.

          "This is not a normal pitcher," Contreras said after the game. "I think he can go out there and throw 100 fastballs and get through a game."

          Was Misiorowski's performance the best in the past decade? There's a strong case for that argument. The highest game scores since 2017:

          • Misiorowski, 6/12/26 (100): 9 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, 15 SO, 27 BF, 95 pitches

          • Justin Verlander, 9/1/19 (100): 9 IP, 0 H, 1 BB, 14 SO, 28 BF, 120 pitches

          • Gerrit Cole, 5/4/18 (100): 9 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 16 SO, 29 BF, 114 pitches

          • John Means, 5/5/21 (99): 9 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 12 SO, 27 BF, 113 pitches

          • Lucas Giolito, 8/25/20 (99): 9 IP, 0 H, 1 BB, 13 SO, 28 BF, 101 pitches

          • Jacob deGrom, 4/23/21 (98): 9 IP, 2 H, 0 BB, 15 SO, 29 BF, 109 pitches

          (The only baserunner against Means was a strikeout/wild pitch, with the runner subsequently caught stealing, so he faced the minimum 27 batters.)

          Those are the game scores of 98 or higher. Skubal's 13-strikeout gem last year was a 96. The highest strikeout game of the past decade is a 17-strikeout performance by Chris Sale in 2019, but he pitched just seven innings and allowed two runs.

          Compared to the matching 100-score games from Verlander and Cole, the argument for Misiorowski is his efficiency. Verlander's no-hitter came against a bad Toronto Blue Jays team that was 55-83 at the time. Cole's game -- also for the Houston Astros, like Verlander's -- came against an Arizona Diamondbacks team that would finish 82-80 with a league-average offense. Misiorowski's game was against a good Phillies team, but one with a below-average offense.

          I'd still give the advantage to Misiorowski since we haven't really seen a dominating performance quite like the one he just delivered, just pouring in strike after strikeout against a Phillies team that had no chance.

          What about the best nine-inning game ever? That's another discussion, although I still lean towards Wood's 1998 game. Let's say this, however: I have a feeling we haven't yet seen Misiorowski's best game.