The 2026 Major League Baseball postseason is down to four teams – the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cleveland Guardians in the American League and the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the senior circuit. This means both best-of-seven League Championship Series are in the offing. The battle for the pennants gets underway Sunday night with the clash-of-titans NLCS, and then ALCS joins the fun starting Monday.
To set the scene for these two series that will determine the World Series matchup, we've landed one crucial question for each of the four teams – the answers to which will go a long way toward determining the outcome of each LCS. Let's explore those questions right now. Milwaukee's 24-year-old phenom is the hardest-throwing starting pitcher the game has ever seen, and he's also the heavy frontrunner for NL Cy Young honors this season.
As such, he's essential to the Brewers' cause as they try to take down the back-to-back World Series champs. The expectation is that he's going to do his part and then some to elevate the Brewers to the World Series for the first time since 1982. However, Misiorowski's personally unprecedented workload in 2026 does raise some concerns, at least insofar as the remainder of the postseason goes.
Last season, Misiorowski – minors, majors, and playoffs combined – worked 141 ⅓ innings. In 2026, his regular-season and postseason innings tally is up to 178 ⅔. Of Misiorowski's 2,735 pitches this season, 1,167 have registered 100 mph or greater.
That's more than twice as many triple-digit fastballs as Padres closer Mason Miller, who's in second place on that list. To be sure, the Brewers have been responsible in their handling of Misiorowski. Of his 30 starts in the regular season, 26 came on extra rest (i.e., more than four days between starts).
Just three times did he throw 100 pitches or more in a start, and his highest single-game pitch count was a quite reasonable 107. Is it worrying that Misiorowski allowed two runs in four innings against the Padres in Game 1 of the NLDS? Is it worrying in light of the fact that in September he posted his worst monthly K% and BB% of the season?
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