In Quinn Priester’s previous 25 starts in the MLB, the 2019 first-round pick had never recorded an out in 7th inning. That changed on Saturday, when Priester tallied seven shutout innings against the Colorado Rockies, capping off both the best start of his career and the best month as a big league pitcher. Priester allowed only one hit while striking out 11 hitters in the outing. 

The Brewers own a league-leading 26-11 record since May 18, in large part due to the team’s pitching staff, especially the starting rotation. Starters hold a 2.92 ERA, ranking first in all of baseball. The staff is simply not allowing extra base hits, leading the league with a .346 slugging percentage allowed. Additionally, the Brewers rank fourth with a .292 wOBA allowed during the 37-game stretch. 

Diving into the numbers, Priester is a substantial reason why the Brewers have been winning consistently over the last month. In June, Priester had a 1.98 ERA over 27.1 innings. Further, Priester put together 9.5 strikeouts per nine innings, over three punch-outs higher than his next-best stretch in March and April when the ratio was 6.4. Priester’s strikeout-to-walk ratio was a blistering 5.80 in the month, which would put him in the top-5 of all pitchers if this performance were sustained through the entire season. 

On Saturday, Priester kept the Rockies off balance with almost an identical usage of sinkers and cutters. Of his 95 pitches, 30.5% were sinkers while 29.5% were cutters, the third-highest percentage of cutters used this season. While allowing a HardHit% of only 33%, along with 20 whiffs, Priester induced an average exit velocity of 78.9 mph through the 25 batters faced. Take away Jordan Beck’s bunt where Priester made the play, diving off the mound, and the exit velocity allowed is 81.5 mph, over eight miles per hour less than his season average of 87.2. 

Priester’s ability to fill up the upper quadrant of the zone with cutters while also working the pitch to the outer-half of the plate to righties and inside to lefties kept Colorado off balance. 

Another start that featured a high usage of cutters for Priester was on June 10 against the Atlanta Braves. Priester’s final line was 6IP 7H 1ER 0BB 7K. Of the 30 cutters Priester threw, only one was hard hit. Against a tougher Braves lineup, Priester worked up with the cutter, intentionally moving above the zone. While only getting five swings and misses on the pitch in the outing, Priester recorded two strikeouts, and eight of the 16 strikes were fouled off, demonstrating the Braves’ inability to square up the pitch.

The cutter has been the difference maker for Priester this season, as the 24-year-old had not thrown the pitch in his first two big league seasons with the Pirates and Red Sox. It will be increasingly important to maintain success in the rotation for Priester as the playoff race heats up for Milwaukee, and the cutter will play a large part.