Now this is the one I've been waiting to tell you about. Five days after the Reds reminded us Jacob Misiorowski is human, the kid walked into Busch Stadium on a hot afternoon — Game 1 of a doubleheader, no less — got punched in the mouth early, and then did something the great ones do. He got up.
Jordan Walker took him deep in the first. Iván Herrera took him deep in the third — on a 102-mile-an-hour fastball, if you can believe that. That's the fourth and fifth homers off him in three starts, after he went eleven straight starts without allowing one. So the story writes itself: the league's finally figured him out, right?
Wrong. After Herrera's homer, Misiorowski simply stopped allowing baserunners. He retired the final 14 batters he faced. Fourteen straight. Struck out 11. Walked nobody. Came back out for the seventh, up 4-3 after Yelich's go-ahead double, and struck out the 10th and 11th men he'd punch out — touching 103.4 mph on his 102nd pitch of the day. His 102nd pitch! I got tired just watching it, and I was sitting down.
Pat Murphy said afterward he was as pleased with this outing as any Misiorowski's had. And I understand exactly what he means. Anybody can be great when everything's easy. This kid was great when it was hard — hot day, doubleheader, two balls in the seats, and a manager counting on him to save the bullpen. He dug in and got it done.
They keep asking me what makes this kid special. It's not the 105 on the gun, though that helps. It's afternoons like this one. Christian Yelich said it best: every time he goes out there, you might see something special. On Tuesday, the special thing was resilience.