Brewers' Misiorowski unleashes 103.5 mph pitch to set World Series record

Jacob Misiorowski needed only one pitch to make World Series history. The Milwaukee Brewers' flamethrower opened this year's Fall Classic with a 103.5 mph fastball to the Tampa Bay Rays' Yandy Díaz on Friday night, setting the record for the fastest pitch ever thrown in a World Series, according to the Associated Press.

Díaz took the heater for a ball above the strike zone — the stadium video board briefly displayed 103.4 mph, but the pitch was clocked at 103.5 mph — and Misiorowski never looked back. The 24-year-old right-hander allowed one run on four hits over five innings with three strikeouts, leaving with Milwaukee holding a 2-1 lead.

The record had belonged to Aroldis Chapman, who touched 103.2 mph in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the 2016 World Series for the Chicago Cubs.

Misiorowski's heat has captivated the sport since his debut in June 2025. In the World Series opener, he reached 100 mph on 38 of his pitches, including 30 at 101 mph or higher and 11 at 102 mph or more. On the season, he threw 1,115 pitches at 100 mph or higher, shattering the previous single-season high of 673, and his fastest pitch of the year — a 105.5 mph heater to the Cubs' Pete Crow-Armstrong on June 27 — fell just short of Chapman's regular-season record of 105.8 mph.

This is not the first velocity mark Misiorowski has claimed. He hit Fernando Tatis Jr. with the first pitch of the NLDS opener on October 3, setting the mark for the fastest postseason pitch, which had been held by Mason Miller for a called third strike to the Cubs' Carson Kelly in last year's Wild Card Series.

The Rays' run came in the fourth: Jonathan Aranda walked, took third on Junior Caminero's double to center, and came around on Liam Hicks' grounder to first baseman Jake Bauers.