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There was never really any other answer, but today Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell made it official, naming Brandon Woodruff his Opening Day starter for 2020.
Brandon Woodruff will start for the Brewers on Opening Day, says Craig Counsell.
— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) July 17, 2020
Woodruff will be the 7th different Opening Day starter for the Brewers in the last 7 years — joining Jhoulys Chacin, Chase Anderson, Junior Guerra, Wily Peralta, Kyle Lohse and Yovani Gallardo. No Brewer has made back-to-back Opening Day starts since Gallardo, who got the honors five seasons in a row from 2010-2014.
That’s led to some (mostly tongue-in-cheek) talk about an Opening Day Curse — none of those other six pitchers had a particularly good season after their symbolic start on the season’s first day, or injuries got in the way of a repeat honor — and (again, mostly tongue-in-cheek) discussion on whether the Brewers would offer, say, Brett Anderson to the cruel Opening Day Gods.
There was never any other option than Woodruff, according to Counsell.
It's silly to talk about curses, but that's what I'm here for. So I asked Counsell whether they seriously considered doing something creative with the pitching to break this "Opening Day curse."
— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) July 17, 2020
No.
"Brandon Woodruff has been the Opening Day starter since October."
Anderson, by the way, is on track to take the ball in game #2 against the Cubs, if his blister heals and current pitching schedules hold to form.
With this announcement, we officially know it’ll be Woodruff against Kyle Hendricks on Opening Day at Wrigley, after Cubs manager David Ross announced his plans earlier this week. The Cubs will start Yu Darvish the next day.