Brandon Woodruff earns first win in nearly two years as Brewers take series finale in Miami, 3-1

Jackson Chourio’s three RBIs, Woodruff’s strong start carry Milwaukee to series win

Box Score

Brandon Woodruff earned the win for the Brewers today with a shutdown performance in his first start since late 2023.

Marlins starter Edward Cabrera hit Sal Frelick to start the game, but got three consecutive groundouts against William Contreras, Christian Yelich, and Jackson Chourio to get out of the inning.

Brandon Woodruff took the mound in the bottom of the first for the first time in 652 days. He didn’t disappoint, striking out Xavier Edwards and Otto Lopez in a three-up, three-down frame.

Cabrera retired Brice Turang and Caleb Durbin to start the second, but ran into a little trouble after Jake Bauers and Andruw Monasteio both singled. Monasterio then stole second, putting runners on second and third for Eric Haase, who struck out swinging to end the inning.

Woodruff had another 1-2-3 inning in the second. Cabrera looked well on the way to his own quick inning after retiring Frelick and Contreras. Christian Yelich was called out on a ground ball to third baseman Connor Norby despite appearing to beat it out.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy decided to challenge the call on the field, and he was right — the call was overturned and ruled an infield single for Yelich. Jackson Chourio, the next hitter up, vindicated Murphy’s decision further with a two-run shot.

Turang grounded out to first baseman Eric Wagaman, but the damage was done. Milwaukee had taken the lead courtesy of Chourio’s homer.

In the bottom of the third, Woodruff allowed his first hit — a leadoff single to Heriberto Hernandez. Woody then bore down and retired each of the next three hitters. Neither team threatened to score in the fourth, either. Sal Frelick doubled with one out in the top of the fifth, but Cabrera retired Contreras and Yelich to get out of the inning.

Woodruff retired Kyle Stowers and Wagaman to start the bottom of the fifth. Hernandez, the only Marlin to record a hit against Woodruff today, was the next hitter. Woodruff quickly got two strikes, but hung a slider that Hernandez smacked over the left-field fence for a solo home run, cutting it to 2-1 Brewers.

At this point, the game was pretty obviously trending towards an old-fashioned pitchers’ duel. Cabrera made quick work of Chourio, Turang, and Durbin in the top of the sixth. Woodruff again retired the side in order in the bottom of the sixth. He was only at 70 pitches at this point, but Murphy chose not to bring him back for the seventh — a sensible decision given that he only threw 82 pitches in his final rehab start with Triple-A Nashville.

The most impressive aspect of Woodruff’s performance was his ability to hit his spots consistently. He looked as precise as he’s ever been. Woody really only made one mistake all game.

Woodruff’s fastball was sitting at 92-93 mph, four or five mph lower than pre-injury, but touched 96 a couple times in the fourth and fifth innings. His sinker, slider, and changeup all looked great. His sinker was playing extremely well down in the zone, and his four-seam, despite the loss of velocity, was getting swing-and-misses at the top of the zone. Most importantly, Woody was consistently inducing weak contact with all four pitches.

Cabrera again retired the first three batters in the top of the seventh. Grant Anderson came in for the bottom of the frame and immediately allowed a single to Otto Lopez. The next batter, Agustín Ramirez, grounded into a double play, and Stowers lined out to end the inning.

Cabrera finally exited in the eighth inning, and Milwaukee took advantage. Frelick and Contreras both singled, putting runners on the corners with nobody out. Yelich lined out to Lopez at shortstop, but Chourio added an insurance run via a sac fly for his third RBI of the game. The sac fly made it 3-1 Brewers, which would end up being the final score after Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill shut down the Marlins in the last two innings.

Milwaukee was able to salvage the series, taking two of three from the Marlins. I know all three games were somewhat close, and Miami’s record (40-48) is far from impressive, but the Marlins have still won 10 of their last 13 even after today’s game. They’ve been playing well over the last couple of weeks and deserve a little more respect than they get around the league.

Hopefully, the Crew can ride the momentum from today’s game into tomorrow’s series opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers, who currently sport the best record in the National League. Tomorrow’s primetime matchup (6:40 p.m.) pits Freddy Peralta against Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The game will be broadcast on FanDuel Sports Wisconsin and the Brewers Radio Network.