MILWAUKEE — The Cardinals reached their first visit of the season to Milwaukee and their first National League Central series in five weeks looking to halt their recent history.

Instead they played spectators to a start that will go down in Brewers history.

Rookie Jacob Misiorowski, the high-powered right-hander and Missouri native, made his major league debut with five sterling, no-hit innings against the Cardinals. Misiorowski announced his presence with authority as his first three pitches all topped 100 mph, and within minutes of his debut had thrown the fastest pitch by a Brewers starter since at least 2008 and topped out at 102.2 mph. It would get more difficult for the Cardinals from there in a 6-0 loss to Milwaukee Thursday night at American Family Field.

Five of those runs came in a ruinous fifth inning for Sonny Gray that featured more runs in the span of two swings that he had allowed in almost 30 previous innings. Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio drilled the two-run homer that chased Gray from his start after giving up six runs over 4 1/3 innings and effectively turned a taut, rivalry game into a rout.

The Cardinals tumble into a five-game losing streak.

A native of Blue Springs, Mo., who grew up in Grain Valley and attended college in Neosho, Misiorowski grew up a Royals fan but said he saw plenty of Cardinals’ games in his youth. The 23-year-old’s parents made the drive up for his big league debut wearing shirts that read they were there to see the “MIZ,” his nickname. They were not disappointed as he sped through the Cardinals’ lineup, getting nine outs from the first nine batters he faced.

He walked four but only one got as far as second base.

Against the Brewers’ third pitcher of the game, the Cardinals got their first hit when Willson Contreras grounded a ball up the middle to lead off the seventh. He was thrown out trying to advance a few pitches later, and despite two more hits, the Cardinals did not generate a run in the inning.

The two division rivals began the game with the same amount of wins (36).

Brewer brilliant in debut

Misiorowski’s five no-hit innings made him one of the few rookies to debut with that many innings and that few hits. Dodgers’ rookie Emmet Sheehan had six no-hit innings in his debut in 2023, and back in 2018 the Cardinals’ Daniel Ponce de Leon pitched seven no-hit innings in his big league debut at Cincinnati. (Ponce de Leon was removed after throwing 116 pitches to get 21 outs on July 23, 2018, and the game was lost in the ninth.)

There’s no telling how deep Misiorowski, the Brewers’ second-round pick in 2022, could have gone before rolling his right ankle at the beginning of the sixth and experienced leg cramping.

He was in complete control of the Cardinals.

He confounded both them and Statcast.

The rookie right-hander’s first big league strikeout started the second when he buzzed Contreras with a 95.7-mph pitch. The in-house radar described it as a four-seam fastball, but given its movement and the fact his fastball is has higher horsepower the pitch was actually a cutter. In the fifth inning, Misiorowski got ahead on Nolan Gorman with back-to-back fastballs at 99 mph. The lanky righty then got Gorman to fish after a 92.4-mph pitch that the data called a sinker. With the fade and movement of the pitch is more likely a change-up.

The heat came next as Misiorowski finished the inning with a 101.1-mph fastball that Pedro Pages couldn’t catch. That was Misiorowski’s fifth and final strikeout.

Fifth erupts on Gray

The inning began benignly enough with leadoff walk and a prompt pickoff at first for an out.

It would end as a pitching line calamity with the Cardinals’ starter, Gray, giving up as many runs on back-to-back pitches as he had in his previous 29 1/3 innings combined.

After Isaac Collins walked to first base to begin the inning and then walked to the dugout once Gray picked him off, Milwaukee’s lineup rapped six consecutive hits against the right-hander. They got increasingly louder as singles led to a double, and Chourio punctuated the inning with a home run to dead-center field. The inning seemed to come unraveled fast on Gray despite attempts by him and visiting pitching coach Dusty Blake to slow things down.

Brice Turang restarted the rally with a single.

Caleb Durbin extended it with a single, and speedy No. 9 hitter Joey Ortiz ignited the scoring with an RBI double to right field. Ortiz’s extra-base hit put him and Durbin in scoring position, and when leadoff hitter Sal Frelick flipped a single to left field, Ortiz dashed around third and headed one two strides behind Durbin.

The runs scored widened the Brewers’ lead to 4-0, and they matched in one inning the total number of runs Gray had allowed in his previous four starts.

The Cardinals’ right-hander had started to polish an All-Star bid with four consecutive quality starts, three of which were chock full of zeroes. In his previous start, Gray held the Dodgers scoreless through 6 1/3 innings. He shut out Texas for seven the start before that, and the run began with six shutout innings against Detroit.

The Brewers weren’t done.

The next pitch after Frelick’s single was an 84.-6 mph sweeper that Chourio launched 410 feet for a two-run bolt. The second-year center fielder’s 12th homer of the season gave the Brewers a 6-0 lead.

In the span of two batters and two pitches, Gray allowed four RBIs — or as many as he had allowed in the previous 29 2/3 innings before the disastrous fifth.

Scott struck, stays in

Cardinals center fielder Victor Scott II was struck near his ear by a curveball to lead off the eighth inning. Scott took several moments to recover and get to his feet, and he was met there by the Cardinals’ head athletic trainer and manager Oliver Marmol. Scott went through a series of tests on the field per concussion protocols. He remained in the game to take his base, and he trotted out to center field to start the bottom of the inning.

‘Brew City’ gulps

Three pitches into the sixth inning, the Brewers’ athletic trainer and manager emerged from the dugout and headed to the mound while a ballpark went silent.

On the mound was their prized pitching prospect in the midst of his hitless debut, and now a trainer was out talking to him about his health.

After delivering a pitch to Cardinals’ No. 9 hitter Scott, Misiorowski appeared to roll his right ankle on the slant of the mound. It collapsed on him as he caught a cleat’s edge. The right-hander regained his footing and was standing comfortable as he spoke with manager Pat Murphy. Misiorowski walked off the field with the trainer under what appeared to be an abundance of caution for the rookie in his first big league game. An official said late Thursday that the rookie experienced cramping in his right calf and quadriceps muscles.

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