Matthew Libersatore struck out a career-best 10- on Monday, but he couldn't overcome a shaky three-run first inning. Milwaukee superstar Jacob Misiorowski threw five no-hit innings and struck out 12 over seven, as Milwaukee won 5-1.
Seeking to add more swing-and-miss stuff to his arsenal, Cardinals’ left-hander Matthew Liberatore recently made significant changes to the way he throws a couple of his pitches, adding velocity to his slider and slowing down his curveball to differentiate it more.
Those changes allowed Liberatore to strike out a season-best nine against the Pirates on May 19, and a career-best 10 on Monday in Milwaukee. The problem, however, is that the 6-foot-4 Liberatore also yielded 14 hits and seven earned runs in those two losses. Liberatore surrendered three first-inning runs on Monday and the Cardinals had no answers for Milwaukee ace Jacob Misiorowski in a 5-1 loss to the Brewers at American Family Field.
Misiorowski, who faced the Cardinals in his MLB debut in 2025 and fired five no-hit innings that night, flirted with a no-hitter for five innings on Monday before Pedro Pages led off the sixth with an opposite -field single. That was just the second ball that the Cardinals got out of the infield over the first five innings. JJ Wetherholt also had a single to right field in the sixth inning – on a 101 mph pitch – for the Cardinals’ only other hit of the day.
On the day, Misiorowski tied his career high with 12 strikeouts, and he now has 100 strikeouts on the season. The owner of MLB’s fastest average pitch velocity (96.7 mph) had 57 pitches of at least 100 mph – most in the pitch-tracking era since 2008. Incredibly, it was his sixth straight start with at least eight strikeouts and no extra-base hits allowed – the longest such run in MLB dating to 1893, per Elias Sports Bureau.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t string anything together versus their starter with his good velo and a good slider,” Cardinals’ manager Oliver Marmol said to Cardinals.TV. “He did a really nice job against us.”
Liberatore flashed swing-and-miss stuff
Liberatore nearly kept pace with Misiorowski in terms of strikeouts. He fanned two in the first, two in the second and set down the side on strikeouts in the third inning. He had another two strikeouts in the fourth inning and his 10th strikeout of the day came on his own ABS challenge. His 94.5 mph four-seam fastball was originally called outside for a ball, but Liberatore’s challenge showed that it clipped the outside corner for strike three.
However, Liberatore was undone by a first inning where he walked Jackson Chourio to lead off the bottom of the first. He was unable to retire the Milwaukee speedster even though he had him picked off at first due in part to shortstop Masyn Winn being late to cover second base because he had to dodge the umpire to get to the bag. William Contreras followed with an RBI single and Christian Yelich hit a two-run, opposite-field single to put the Cardinals into a 3-0 hole after four batters.
“He just didn’t get ahead first time through (the Milwaukee lineup),” Marmol noted. “After that, he was able to fill up the zone, land everything, get 10 punchouts and only walk two. But the first time through, they took some good swings off him.”
Yelich’s homer was the 10th allowed this season by Liberatore with six of them coming by left-handed hitters. Liberatore threw two sliders in the heart of the plate early in the count that Yelich fouled off. When Liberatore threw a third slider down the middle, Yelich blasted it 381 feet for his fourth homer of the season.
Jordan Walker had the defensive gem of the day by hauling in a fly ball at 289 feet and throwing a strike to Pages to erase a tagging Yelich in the seventh inning. It was Walker's fifth outfield assist of the season.
Left-handed rookie Brycen Mautz, who was scheduled to start on Sunday in Cincinnati before that game was rained out, made his MLB debut by relieving in the sixth inning. Mautz, a second-round pick in 2022, had started all 81 games he’d ever appeared in during his time in the Minor Leagues.
Mautz gave up single runs in the sixth and seventh innings, but he retired the Brewers in order in the eighth inning.
“It was good get him out there and give him enough time to feel good about it,” Marmol said of Mautz, who will likely return to Triple-A Memphis in the coming days with Ryan Fernandez being a strong candidate to return to the big leagues after solid relief work over the weekend. “He gave us three innings and that allowed us to rest our bullpen, and we’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”
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