Woodruff strong in return but Brewers fall to Pirates 4-1

Box Score

Brandon Woodruff made his return to the rotation today and looked good. He pitched five innings with nine strikeouts, but the Brewers offense couldn’t back it up and the Brewers lost to the Pirates 4-1.

In his first start back, Brandon Woodruff did what he needed to back up the team. His only big mistakes were two home runs he allowed, one by Endy Rodriguez in the third and one by Connor Joe in the fourth. Those were two of only four hits he allowed, and he did not walk a batter either. He added on nine strikeouts in those five innings.

However, the Brewers offense just couldn’t manage much at all. They didn’t have more than one baserunner in an inning until the ninth. In fact, the only time they had a baserunner in scoring position in the first eight innings was in the third. Brice Turang drew a one-out walk and then stole second, but Joey Wiemer and Christian Yelich both struck out to end the inning.

In the bullpen, Hoby Milner had a quick sixth inning, needing just eight pitches to get through it. Abner Uribe Worked a scoreless seventh, striking out two. J.C. Mejia took the last two innings but allowed a two-run home run to Bryan Reynolds in the eighth inning.

The Brewers did attempt a rally down four in the ninth inning. William Contreras walked and Carlos Santana singled to put two runners on base to start the inning. Willy Adames grounded out to erase Santana but move up Contreras to third. Sal Frelick struck out for the second out. Mark Canha then hit a ground ball that should have ended the game, but Ke’Bryan Hayes had a throwing error that allowed Canha to reach and Contreras to score. That brought up Andruw Monasterio as the tying run, but he flew out to end the game.

William Contreras was the only Brewer with multiple hits, going 2-for-3 with a walk. Turang also reached base twice with a hit and a walk. However, the rest of the offense managed just one hit and two walks.

The Brewers retain a 1 ¹⁄₂ game lead in the division with the Reds loss, but the Cubs have pulled into a tie for second with a win today. Next up for the Brewers is the Rockies, who come to Milwaukee starting tomorrow. Peter Lambert starts for the Rockies and Freddy Peralta starts for the Brewers. First pitch is at 7:10 p.m.