Brandon Woodruff and Jesus Luzardo were both on a roll when they took the mound on Monday night, but only Woodruff could keep it going.
Woodruff delivered the Milwaukee Brewers’ first complete-game shutout since 2021, and the National League Central-leading team collected a season-high 17 hits in a 12-0 blowout of the Miami Marlins.
Milwaukee’s lopsided victory came one night after they lost 4-3 to the New York Yankees, despite Corbin Burnes, Devin Williams and Abner Uribe holding the Yankees hitless for the first 10 innings.
Photo: AFP
“Opportunities like this just don’t come around much,” Woodruff said of his first nine-inning complete game. “Especially after the game yesterday, it wasn’t on my mind, but it was a long game and we used a lot of guys, and we played well enough to win that game yesterday and we just didn’t. So today I just wanted to go out and give my team a chance to win. Thankfully, I was able to finish it off.”
Woodruff’s only previous complete game came in a 4-2 loss to the St Louis Cardinals in a seven-inning doubleheader matchup during the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season. He recorded the Brewers’ first complete-game shutout since Adrian Houser threw a three-hitter in a 4-0 triumph over the Cardinals on Sept. 4, 2021.
Manager Craig Counsell agreed to let Woodruff (5-1) go out for the ninth, but he said the veteran right-hander could not go over 105 pitches. Woodruff gave up two hits in his final inning, but Counsell let him stick around to complete the six-hitter on his 106th pitch.
“Getting out there and warming up and having those warmup pitches, my heart was just racing, to be honest,” Woodruff said. “The first couple of pitches weren’t even close, and I just talked to myself a little bit and told myself to settle down and to just try to keep making pitches.”
“Thankfully I did a good enough job to get through it. Yeah, I was nervous, for sure,” he added.
Woodruff’s outstanding performance came six days after he allowed two hits over seven innings in a 7-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Over his past four starts, Woodruff has yielded just three runs in 28 innings.
Luzardo (9-9) was on a similar run heading into the night, allowing two runs in 18 innings over his previous three starts, but he gave up six runs and 10 hits on Monday.
Luzardo said he “just felt little out of whack mechanically.”
“I’ve just got to be better,” he said. “There’s no excuse for it.”
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