CINCINNATI – When Brandon Woodruff first went into his windup, reared back and flung his first big-league fastball in nearly two months toward the plate, it was a bit neck-craning: 89 mph and buried in the dirt to Cincinnati Reds leadoff batter Blake Dunn.
By the time pitch No. 79 had exited his right arm June 22 at Great American Ball Park, it looked quite different – for both player and team.
For Woodruff, the proof was in the putty he had turned the Reds’ bats into. Sixteen up and 16 down to begin the evening. Six scoreless. Ten strikeouts. A fastball that slowly but surely crept up in velocity all game, topping out at 94.9 mph.
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“I was just really, really happy for him and really happy for our team because of what he means to the club,” manager Pat Murphy said. “It’s special, man. Special outing.”
For the Milwaukee Brewers, who ultimately won in 10 innings, it could impact their entire outlook. And, no, that isn’t hyperbole.
Woodruff, after shoulder surgery three years ago and a slower ramp-up to this season and then the dead arm symptoms from shoulder inflammation in his most recent outing April 30, is used to taking the mound without expectations about what his body will allow him to do. But nobody could have expected it to look like this.
The outing began inauspiciously for Woodruff. He averaged 89.8 mph in the first inning with his heater and twice fell behind three balls to no strikes. Woodruff even strongly contemplated switching to the stretch because he just couldn’t sync up his mechanics.
Through three innings, he hadn’t allowed a base runner but the Reds also had four hard-hit balls in the air. It seemed as if they might be calibrating Woodruff’s fastball.
They never did.
No, it wasn’t the upper-90s heat of the Woodruff of yore. It isn’t going to be. And that’s clearly fine.
Cincinnati couldn’t get a barrel on either of Woodruff’s heaters, the four and two-seamer. As the strikeout total, which pushed Woodruff to 900 in his career, showed, sometimes they didn’t get anything on the pitches.
“He looked like Big Woo,” Brewers infielder Joey Ortiz said.
The movement on Woodruff’s fastballs hasn’t gone anywhere. To JJ Bleday in the fourth, Woodruff hucked a 94 mph two-seamer that was fouled back, then came with another that had 19 inches of run for a ball. Next up was a changeup with 16 inches of run for the strikeout.
“It plays up,” said Murphy. “It plays up.”
His best pitch of the day came at the end of the fifth, a 22-inch runner of a two-seam that clipped the corner for a punch out of Eugenio Suarez.
“I just try to put the ball in good spots. The hitter tells me everything,” Woodruff said. “If I’m seeing guys and they’re late, whether it’s 90, 91, it still plays. I try to treat it that way. I didn’t realize the velo was climbing in the third through the sixth inning. That’s a good sign for me.”
Woodruff delivered his 21st career double-digit strikeout outing, second-most in Brewers history to only Corbin Burnes, whose shoes the 33-year-old is now filling – literally.
Woodruff wore Burnes’ old cleats for his first game back, sporting the blue-and-white spikes that had been repurposed by Brewers equipment manager Jason Shawger.
That small touch encapsulates how magical a night it was for Woodruff and the Brewers, although the takeaway from it is indeed no fairytale.
If this is what post-injury Woodruff is going to look like, the Brewers’ starting pitching conversation changes dramatically.
Skubal? Mize? Detmers? Peralta? Ryan?
Sure, they would all be great to have for the stretch run and postseason. Without Woodruff – or even with a tattered, diminished version of him – a reinforcement may be necessary.
The Brewers, of course, could still go out and bolster the staff with a deadline arm five weeks from now. There’s even an argument to make for them to still do it. But let’s not lose sight of their method of operation.
It’s not that president of baseball operation Matt Arnold is averse to making a splash trade; it’s that he and the Brewers are committed to building the team from within. There’s a reason the highest-ranked prospect Milwaukee has dealt under Arnold is Esteury Ruiz (or Yophery Rodriguez, perhaps). Take it or leave it, this is how they go about business.
Does that mean the Brewers shouldn’t still weigh the options at a deadline that has a chance to be rich in starting pitching? No, just the same as this offense needs some reinforcements at one of three positions of weakness.
But Woodruff at the tail end of Jacob Misiorowski and Kyle Harrison? That would alter the equation. The Brewers wouldn’t have to go out and acquire a trustworthy third starter, and instead would go into any series feeling quite confident in the trio they’ve got.
“Those guys are incredible,” Woodruff said. “They have great stuff. They’re starting to believe in themselves. At this level it comes down to execution, doing the homework, looking at the other team and understanding how your stuff plays. Then it becomes compete, attack, execute. They’re starting to do that and these guys are special.”
For that to work, it requires Woodruff to maintain the form he had against the Reds. The good news for the Brewers is all signs from the way his fastballs played and the hapless swings he generated indicates that may very well happen, so long as he remains healthy.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What does this version of Brandon Woodruff change for Brewers? Everything.
Reporting by Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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By Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
