Brewers 5, Pirates 1: Misiorowski's Five Scoreless Clinch a Fourth Straight Central

Five scoreless in Pittsburgh, then a clubhouse watching Wrigley

September 15, 2026 - Pittsburgh - Jacob Misiorowski struck out the first four batters he faced. Five of the first six. He threw five shutout innings, and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-1. Then they went into the clubhouse and watched the Cubs lose 6-3 to Atlanta at Wrigley Field, the MLB recap said. That combination clinched a fourth straight National League Central title.

Clear, 79 degrees. Wind 7 mph, out to left. First pitch 6:43 p.m. Attendance 23,961. The game lasted 2 hours, 51 minutes. Milwaukee had eight hits. Pittsburgh had 10. The Brewers are 94-57. The Pirates are 75-76. The division was formed in 1994. The MLB recap said Milwaukee is the first club to win it four years in a row. They have also won it five of the last six seasons and six of the last nine.

Misiorowski (15-5) went five: five hits, no runs, one walk, seven strikeouts, 82 pitches. The MLB recap said he lowered his major league-leading ERA to 1.89 and raised his major league-leading strikeout total to 243, passing Teddy Higuera's 240 from 1987 for third on the franchise's single-season list. A 24-year-old, 6-foot-7 right-hander on the road, on clinch night, doing the thing he has done since May.

Lara in the second, then four in the sixth off Soto

Luis Lara lifted a sacrifice fly in the second. Jake Bauers scored. 1-0. That was the only run Misiorowski needed, and it sat there through five. Lake Bachar had given Milwaukee the run and then handed a 1-0 game to a bullpen that could not keep it at 1-0.

The sixth ended the argument. Brice Turang scored on a wild pitch while Christian Yelich walked. William Contreras went to third. 2-0. Gregory Soto was already in the inning he would not finish. Lara doubled Contreras home, Yelich to third. 3-0. Joey Ortiz singled both of them in. 5-0. Four runs. Two-thirds of an inning for Soto: two hits, four runs, two walks. The bottom third of Milwaukee's order did the damage, the MLB recap said. Lara and Ortiz drove in two each. Turang walked four times and scored. That is a clinch night that did not need a homer.

Bachar (the loss) went two: three hits, one run, two walks. Brandon Eisert threw 2 1/3 scoreless. Antwone Kelly threw three more. Pittsburgh's pitching after Soto was fine. Pittsburgh's pitching during Soto was the 5-0.

Ten Pirate hits, one of them a homer that did not matter

Rafael Flores Jr. went 4-for-4. Nick Gonzales had two hits and a walk. Brandon Lowe hit his 30th homer in the eighth, a fly ball to right off DL Hall. 5-1. Ten hits. One run until that swing. Misiorowski had already handed the game to Aaron Ashby, who threw two scoreless. Trevor Megill finished the ninth. The Pirates left the night with a 4-for-4 from their catcher and a 5-1 that never felt like a 5-1 until the sixth.

Ortiz went 3-for-4 with a double, two RBI, and a caught stealing. Lara went 1-for-3 with a double, two RBI, and a run. Contreras doubled and scored. Garrett Mitchell doubled, walked, and was hit. David Hamilton stole a base. Yelich walked and scored. Eight hits, five runs, and a division that had been waiting on Atlanta to finish.

A fourth crown, and 11 games that still count

President of baseball operations Matt Arnold told the MLB recap that doing it four years in a row with this group means the world. Manager Pat Murphy said the 2026 club is starting to grow on him. Misiorowski called them a scrappy bunch that puts the ball in play. Those are the quotes from a clubhouse that had earned the right to talk. The baseball underneath them is simpler: five scoreless, four in the sixth, a Cubs loss, and a banner.

Milwaukee still has 11 games left. The MLB recap listed the rest of the to-do list: hold off Los Angeles, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, and New York for the best record in the sport, chase the franchise win record of 97 from last year, and keep rust off a staff that has to pitch in October. Misiorowski's 166 1/3 innings are a career high. He will be managed. The division is no longer a nightly math problem.

The Pirates got 10 hits and one run and watched someone else's party in their own park. Lowe's 30th was a real homer. It was also the eighth inning of a 5-0. Flores's 4-for-4 deserved a better night around it. Bachar took the loss because somebody had to.

The Brewers are the NL Central champions again. Tuesday at PNC Park made it official. Misiorowski made it look like the version of this team that has been doing this since May.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Misiorowski at 18 pitching fantasy points. Ortiz and Lara had 5 hitting FP each. Turang had 4. Milwaukee finished with 12 team FP. Pittsburgh finished at minus-4. A 5-1 that clinches a division can sit behind a 10-1 and a 10-3 on a team table. The pitcher board does not care about the banner. It still had Misiorowski in the top 10.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: ESPN recap and box score, MLB.com Gameday wrap, MLB.com schedule, and AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*