PITTSBURGH — Three days, three pitching gems. If this is how the Brewers would line up their rotation for a best-of-five National League Division Series, you can envision them being a formidable foe.
After Freddy Peralta extended MLB’s longest scoreless streak this season to 29 innings and counting against the Phillies on Thursday, and Quinn Priester went seven innings against the Pirates on Friday to set a franchise record with his 11th consecutive winning decision, Brandon Woodruff carved through Pittsburgh’s’ lineup for six scoreless innings in Saturday’s 4-1 Brewers win at PNC Park, with two hits, no walks and an injection of confidence coming off a couple of wobbly starts.
But let’s pump the brakes on planning October pitching rotations, Woodruff cautioned. After spending parts of three calendar years rehabbing a shoulder injury, he would relish as much as anybody the chance to compete again in that charged environment — but the Brewers have to get there first.
“I’m coming in each and every day doing my best to pitch and recover. Wash and rinse and repeat, and just help out any way in between,” Woodruff said. “But I haven’t thought one thing about [the postseason]. I’ll be fortunate to pitch in that environment again. I’ve missed that. That’s where I thrive the most, I feel like, in those types of games and environments.
“We just have to get to that point and try not to look too far ahead.”
He’s right, of course, because even with the best record in the Majors at 88-55 and a 6 1/2-game lead over the Cubs in the NL Central standings, the Brewers have much left to accomplish in the 19 games that remain in the regular season. They have to clinch a postseason berth first, which they can do so as soon as Monday in Texas. Then they have to cement the division and one of the NL’s top two seeds, which comes with a bye through the chaos of the best-of-three Wild Card Series round and on to the only slightly less-chaotic best-of-five Division Series.
There’s more. They will endeavor to get their injury-depleted bullpen corps back in order (Erick Fedde, Rob Zastryzny, Tobias Myers and Aaron Ashby — who covered the final five outs in a newly-elevated role — stepped up Saturday in a big way). They’ll have to figure out how to wedge Rhys Hoskins back onto a roster that already includes two first basemen in Andrew Vaughn and Jake Bauers (who hit a big two-run home run in Saturday’s win). They will also have to get their hobbled stars, Jackson Chourio and Christian Yelich, healthy again and producing in the middle of the order.
In a sign of progress for both, Yelich tested his sore back in the cage on Saturday and came through it well, said manager Pat Murphy, who didn’t rule out using Yelich off the bench in Sunday’s series finale. Chourio snapped an 0-for-17 with a two-run homer that doubled the Brewers’ lead to 4-0 in the eighth as he continued getting his legs back following a stint on the injured list for a hamstring strain.
If all of those pieces fall back into place, then one can start talking about the strength of this starting rotation, which is currently lined up as Peralta, Priester and Woodruff, followed by rookie Jacob Misiorowski and veteran Jose Quintana.
“They’re all throwing the ball really, really good,” Murphy said. “Our starting pitching has become solidified. We’ve been through a lot this season with starting pitching.”
Woodruff now has 11 starts under his belt in 2025 following a multi-year comeback from shoulder surgery, and Saturday represented a good step forward coming off wobbly outings against the Cubs, D-backs and Blue Jays in which he surrendered 16 runs (13 earned) on 20 hits in 14 1/3 innings. Against the Pirates, Woodruff gave up a groundball single to Bryan Reynolds with two outs in the first inning, then didn’t allow another hit until Jared Triolo’s two-out single in the sixth.
Woodruff got out of that inning with strikeout No. 8 on his 85th pitch, and the 32-year-old wasn’t bothered by that relatively modest pitch count. To the contrary, considering that he has logged more than 100 competitive innings this year between rehab assignments and the Majors, after zero in 2024, he is mindful that health is paramount as the postseason nears.
“One of you asked me, ‘When will you start to expect to go out and do well?’” Woodruff said, thinking back to the questions he faced at the start of his comeback. “Well, I think I started to expect it, and things started going sideways. I was out on the field today warming up, looking around, and I was like, ‘I’m going to enjoy today and enjoy pitching on a big league mound in a big league game and just have fun.’ I think it was a different mindset for me.
“Still no expectations for me. I’m just enjoying everything I get to go out and pitch for a very good baseball team. It’s been fun. Hopefully we’ll keep that momentum and, come October, have some real fun.”
