Woodruff’s whole arsenal worked against Pirates
How locked in was Brandon Woodruff on Wednesday night?
So much so that it wasn't until David Phelps's offhand comment after the game that the right-hander realized how close he and his bullpen mates had come to matching a feat achieved only once previously in Milwaukee Brewers history.
A first-inning infield squibber wound up being the lone hit Woodruff and bullpen mates Phelps, Devin Williams and Josh Hader allowed to the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 3-0 victory at PNC Park that sent the Brewers back home with a .500 road trip.
“Honestly, I did not even realize it until Phelps was just saying something about it,” Woodruff said minutes afterward. “I didn't even realize it, and then I thought back to the play where it was the grounder.
“Maybe we can work on it a little bit and see if we can get it changed. But I did not realize it.”
Phillip Evans hit a three-hopper down the third-base line that rolled just far enough away from Omar Narváez that the catcher couldn't make a legitimate play on it – though he still made a terrific diving effort with a throw to first base that was ultimately wide and late.
It being so early in the game, Woodruff didn't sweat it. He struck out Josh Bell and got the red-hot Colin Moran to ground out to retire the Pirates, and was off and running from there.
Woodruff struck out the side swinging in the second, then got something of a kick save in the third when he deflected a hot shot off the bat of Erik González right to third baseman Brock Holt for another easy out.
Already with a 2-0 lead thanks to a third-inning Ben Gamel homer, Woodruff got another insurance run when Keston Hiura went deep off Joe Musgrove.
After a 1-2-3 sixth Woodruff had retired a career-best 17 straight batters.