Brewers become first NL team to reach 60 victories, riding 11-game win streak
The Milwaukee Brewers' starting pitcher was fresh off a dazzling performance, one in which he tossed six innings of two-hit ball en route to the club's 6-0 win against the Seattle Mariners. But upon learning the victory gave the Brewers 11 wins in a row but also the best record in the National League, Woodruff was taken aback — but only briefly.
'Doesn't surprise me,' Woodruff said. 'We got a lot of great guys in this clubhouse and it's a fun team. So, I feel like we say that every year, but this year's a little bit different in a way.'
To Woodruff's point, the Brewers have won 60 of their first 100 games with a very different roster than the one that won the National League Central last year.
Shortstop Willy Adames (San Francisco Giants) and right-hander Corbin Burnes (Arizona Diamondbacks) both signed massive contracts elsewhere this offseason. Long-time closer Devin Williams, meanwhile, was traded to the New York Yankees in December. Their departures, though, have hardly hindered the Brewers.
Even though Woodruff missed most of the first half as a result of being brought along slowly following surgery on his pitching shoulder, the Brewers' rotation has been stout in his absence. Milwaukee starters have combined for the sixth-lowest ERA in the majors, thanks in part to shrewd pickups like right-hander Quinn Priester, who Milwaukee acquired in April.
'I think that's a lot of credit to our front office and our coaching staff, and just putting the right guys in the room,' Woodruff said. 'When you can get guys that play for each other and play with each other and just have fun. That's the biggest thing. There's a reason why we've done this over the last eight, nine years.'
Since 2018, the Brewers have won the NL Central four times and are on track to make it three straight seasons, doing so mostly without 'household names', as Woodruff said. This season, it's been a collective, well-balanced effort propelling the Brewers to frequent victories, including six against the Los Angeles Dodgers during their active win streak.
Second baseman Brice Turang is leading the club's position players with three Wins Above Replacement, per Baseball Reference. Twenty-one-year old outfielder Jackson Chourio remains a force to be reckoned with after a standout rookie season. And right-hander Freddy Peralta leads all major league pitchers with 12 wins.
All of it has led to quite the positive clubhouse culture from the perspective of folks like shortstop Joey Ortiz.
'Winning's great, winning's fun, It's a blessing to come to a big-league field and play the game,' Ortiz said. 'So, I feel like winning is just an extra on top of that. Everyone's so close in the locker room that I don't even think – of course we want to win, but I don't think winning matters. I think we have a great time just being together, and I think it shows on the field.'
It's a tight-knit group led by reigning National League manager of the year Pat Murphy. The baseball lifer is aware his team continues to gain confidence with each passing win, but that there is still much time remaining in the regular season.
The trade deadline hasn't even come and gone, so the small-market Brewers still have plenty of time to work with – after all, as Murphy put it, it's only July 21.
'There's more to be done. There's more opportunity,' Murphy said. 'There's no reason to coast. There's every reason to know you're in a fight. You drop your guard, 'Whack!' and sometimes you don't recover from that.'
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New York Times
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These were the actual words that were in my brain all winter: This dude might struggle something fierce. Every time I clicked on his Baseball Savant page, it was like a blinking red siren. He wasn't just making weak contact; he was making some of the weakest contact in the league. He wasn't just swinging and missing; he had some of the worst strikeout and whiff rates in the league. Then there was his batted-ball profile, which has him as one of the most extreme pull hitters in baseball. It all adds up to the profile of a hitter the league will catch up with. Then you get to the evidence that the league already did catch up to him at the end of his breakout season: His OPS for September of last season was under .700, and his strikeout-to-walk ratio was all cattywampus. It's a shame, because there's so much already right with him as a player. 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Between the Bob Knepper trade in 1980 and Matt Cain's debut in 2005, there wasn't a more dangerous job on the planet than 'exciting young Giants pitcher.' Every time a pitcher would start to fly, they'd fly too close to the sun on shoulders made out of wax. Can you believe there was a time when the Giants had five starting pitchers in the top-100 prospects, including the best pitching prospect in baseball? Only one of them lived up to expectations, and only after he was traded for A.J. Pierzynski. It was always doom for the young pitchers. Doom, doom, doom. Advertisement And in the other corner, you have newer fans, who watched the Giants thrive beyond their wildest dreams because of young pitching. They understand that pitching is a cruel profession, and they know that success can be fleeting, but they're not terrified of young pitchers in general. Sometimes they work. Look at Logan Webb over there. Came up, got good, stayed good for a long time. What's the big deal? 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Except this prediction makes it in here because it's both correct and incorrect. Yes, Hayden Birdsong is caught in a developmental maelstrom right now, and Kyle Harrison is currently on the Pawtucket Red Sox, but Landen Roupp has been stellar. It's been enjoyable to watch his changeup develop as the season progresses, and you can see the curveball become even more effective the less he has to rely on it. Sometimes it's better to be wrong. Maybe there's a way to scoop this lobe of the brain out and replace it with something more optimistic. 'Oops! All Lincecums!' or something like that. I wish I were more wrong in public about the Giants' plan to rely on young pitchers, which I was quietly skeptical about. If the Giants make the postseason this year, young pitching will be a major reason why. Sometimes young pitchers end up helping, and they don't have to stop for a long time. (Top photo of Tyler Fitzgerald: Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)
