The Arizona Diamondbacks turned Brandon Woodruff’s July 4 start in Phoenix into a short night for the Milwaukee Brewers. He left in the fourth inning after his velocity dipped and a trainer visited him, ending a start that had already been slipping away.
Adrian Del Castillo in the Brewers
Adrian Del Castillo opened the damage with a first-pitch, three-run homer to right in the first inning. Corbin Carroll had reached after four uncompetitive misses from Woodruff, and Gabriel Moreno followed with a single to center before the home run gave Arizona an immediate edge.
Woodruff was in his third start back from dead arm symptoms, and the warning signs from that earlier stretch were still there. He had felt those symptoms in his previous outing against Arizona on April 30, then spent two months on the injured list before returning to the mound.
Craig Yoho in Phoenix and
When Woodruff exited with two outs in the fourth inning, Craig Yoho took over and gave Milwaukee length it had to have. He was activated hours before the game, then retired all eight batters he faced in relief of Woodruff, his longest appearance in the majors.
That work mattered because the bullpen had already covered 25 outs the night before, and Milwaukee could not afford another short start to turn into a long night. Yoho’s outing kept the Brewers from burning through more arms after the pitching change and gave the club a bridge into a game that still had work left.
Brewers Miss Runners in Scoring Position
The offense did not clean up the problem. Milwaukee opened the second game of the series 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position, then reached 1 for 10 after Joey Ortiz’s bases-loaded lineout.
There were a few hard-contact swings, but not enough finishing touch. Christian Yelich hit a 418-foot home run after Brice Turang’s leadoff double, and Garrett Mitchell added a 421-foot double in the fourth inning, yet the Brewers still spent too much of the game chasing the first inning they gave away.
Milwaukee had also placed Joel Kuhnel on the 15-day injured list before the game, then called up Yoho to cover the gap. The club’s next chance to reset the pitching matchup came July 5 at 3:05 p.m., when Brandon Sproat was scheduled to face Eduardo Rodríguez.
