Photo Credit: Kirsten Schmitt/Brewers
There weren’t a lot of highlights for the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday night as they struggled through a season-ending 5-1 loss in game seven of the NLCS. One of the few was a player who has been an afterthought much of the season before turning a corner under the bright postseason lights. Thirteen different pitchers threw more regular-season innings for the Brewers in 2018 than Brandon Woodruff—including several that didn’t make the postseason roster—and eight Brewers pitchers started more games than he did. Time and again during the postseason, however, the team put Woodruff in a prominent position, and he rewarded them for doing so.
First, Woodruff was the surprise “initial out getter” for Craig Counsell when the Brewers went with a bullpen day in the first game of the NLDS on Thursday, Oct. 4. He allowed just one baserunner on a walk and faced the minimum through three innings in his first postseason appearance. The Brewers turned to Woodruff again that game, calling upon him for two innings in relief of Gio Gonzalez, who was lifted early. Woodruff faced six batters, retired them all and recorded four strikeouts. He needed just 27 pitches to work through his outing.
The only blemish on Woodruff’s postseason record came in the fifth game, where he was the surprise first-inning reliever following the Brewers’ decision to remove Wade Miley after just one batter. He allowed three runs but pitched 5 1/3 innings in that game, meaning the second-longest outing by any Brewers pitcher this October was a relief appearance.
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Finally, the Brewers turned to Woodruff one final time with the task of keeping the game as close as possible in the eighth inning of Saturday’s seventh game of the NLCS. Woodruff once again worked two scoreless innings, working around two hits and a walk and getting five of his six outs via strikeout.
All told, Woodruff was second among all Brewers with 12 1/3 innings pitched this postseason. Despite having pitched for just one playoff team, he’s already tied with Yovani Gallardo for the Brewers’ all-time lead with 20 postseason strikeouts. He routinely stifled a Dodgers offense that led the National League in runs scored, walks and home runs in 2018 and, in so doing, he may very well have forced his way into the conversation for a prominent role with the Brewers in 2019.
Tough Questions for the Brewers
As noted above, the Brewers pretty routinely passed over Woodruff in favor of other starting pitching options in 2018. They opted instead to shuttle him back and forth between the big-league bullpen and Colorado Springs, where he made 17 starts and posted a 4.04 ERA in one of the toughest pitching environments in professional baseball. After his performance this postseason, he’s almost certainly demonstrated that he deserves more major league opportunities going forward.
The Brewers are going to have tough questions to answer around their pitching staff this winter and next spring. Even if both Wade Miley and Gio Gonzalez leave via free agency and no further additions are made, they’ll still have Jhoulys Chacín, Jimmy Nelson, Zach Davies, Chase Anderson, Junior Guerra, Freddy Peralta, Corbin Burnes and Woodruff as candidates for a limited number of spots in their starting rotation. Something’s going to have to give to allow all those pitchers opportunities to get innings at the major league level.
Given that logjam, Woodruff may have been something of a long-shot to crack the starting rotation as recently as Saturday, Sept. 1. He deserves credit, however, for making the most of his recent opportunities to demonstrate that he belongs on the mound in key situations.
