The Brewers' lineup hammered Sánchez, boosting Misiorowski's case for the NL Cy Young Award.

Jacob Misiorowski fulfilled his duty on Saturday, while his teammates took care of theirs today.

Jackson Chourio led off against Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez with a home run, and Blake Perkins, seizing a rare start, smashed a three-run shot, leading the Brewers to a 4-0 shutout of the Phillies, capping a sold-out weekend at American Family Field. The victory also added a significant boost to the Brewers' young pitcher's Cy Young hopes in the National League.

"I'm thrilled that our players are competing like this against a team built for the World Series, one with such pitching talent," said Brewers manager Pat Murphy. "This is what it's all about—being in these situations as often as possible, staying calm, and hoping to win a few of them."

And win a few they did, starting with Misiorowski. In the series opener, he dominated the Phillies with a 15-strikeout, one-hit shutout—one of the greatest pitching performances in Brewers history—while also issuing a challenge to Sánchez, who took the mound on Sunday. Both join Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Reds' Chase Burns, the Braves' Chris Sale, defending champion Paul Skenes of the Pirates, and others among the early frontrunners for the NL Cy Young Award.

At this early stage, the race is wide open, but Misiorowski and Sánchez stand out. As of before today's game, Sánchez led the league in Baseball-Reference's pitcher WAR, going 6-0 with a 0.75 ERA over his last eight starts, including five consecutive scoreless outings in May, edging out Misiorowski—who posted a 0.23 ERA over six May starts—for the NL Pitcher of the Month award.

However, the Brewers' lineup delivered a heavy blow to Sánchez on Sunday. Chourio launched the team's first leadoff home run of the season, his fifth homer in the last five games and a league-leading seventh in June. In the fourth inning, Perkins stepped to the plate with a .111 batting average and smashed a two-out, three-run homer, providing ample breathing room for Brewers starter Kyle Harrison. Perkins later added a double in the sixth to chase Sánchez, improving his career numbers against the lefty to 6-for-7 with three doubles, a homer, and five RBIs. Over 5.2 innings, Brewers hitters collected eight hits and four earned runs off Sánchez, raising his ERA from 1.54 to 1.82—a boost for Misiorowski's Cy Young campaign. Among pitchers with at least 50 innings this season, Misiorowski ranks near the top in several categories: 1.34 ERA (second), 131 strikeouts (first), 39.8% strikeout rate (first), 0.74 WHIP (first), .140 opponent batting average (first), and .410 opponent OPS (first).

Of course, the regular season still has a long way to go. To protect Misiorowski, the Brewers have pushed back his next start to June 19, the series opener against the Braves on the road, meaning he will get a full week of rest after his memorable performance against the Phillies. As a result, Milwaukee plans to have Misiorowski and Harrison pitch on back-to-back days in the upcoming schedule—the team's two best pitchers this season. Harrison bounced back on Sunday with six scoreless innings, allowing just three hits and no walks. "It feels good to be back at sea level," he said. "The ball movement returned to normal, the vertical break came back, and it felt great today."

Regarding Misiorowski's remarkable showing, Chourio said, "Extremely impressive, but I'm very satisfied with the overall performance of the entire team. I think that's the best way to describe it: I'm really happy with how we played this weekend."