Brewers’ Brandon Woodruff allows just two hits to Marlins in first MLB start since 2023
Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Brandon Woodruff notched a quality start on Sunday against the Miami Marlins (GameTracker) in what served as his first appearance since Sept. 23, 2023. (Coincidentally, that appearance also took place in Miami.) He subsequently required shoulder surgery that wiped out his entire 2024 season as well as more than half of his 2025 campaign.
Woodruff’s velocity was down nearly three miles per hour on his fastball compared to his 2023 average (93.1 mph versus 95.8 mph), but he otherwise showed few signs of rust on Sunday as he surrendered just one run on two hits and no walks over six innings. Said run came on a home run by Marlins left fielder Heriberto Hernandez. Woodruff punched out eight of the 20 batters he faced and generated 10 whiffs on 33 swings taken against him, including five versus his fastball variants.
“I think he’s going to go out there and compete and see where we’re at, get a baseline and then kind of continue from there,” pitching coach Chris Hook had said on Saturday. “I can’t say it’s going to be this or that because I don’t know. I’m just going to let him go out and enjoy the day and compete and be excited about it. And after that, we’ll be able to say this is where we think we are, and then we’ll be able to build from that.”
Woodruff, 32, had pieced together an impressive career before his layoff. Over parts of seven big-league seasons, he compiled a 3.10 ERA (137 ERA+) and a 4.48 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 680 innings pitched. His contributions were estimated to be worth 16.7 Wins Above Replacement, according to Baseball Reference’s estimates. Additionally, he appeared in a pair of All-Star Games and finished fifth in balloting for the 2021 National League Cy Young Award.
The Brewers entered Sunday with a 49-40 record on the season, putting them in second place in the NL Central, four games back of the Chicago Cubs. The Brewers were 2 ½ games back of the New York Mets for the top wild-card spot and possessed a 1 ½ game lead over the various teams vying for the third wild card.
