Woodruff returns to form as Brewers defeat Cardinals 5-1

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Brandon Woodruff wasted no time bouncing back from an uncharacteristically poor performance in his season debut.

Woodruff threw five shutout innings, Omar Narváez homered and doubled, and the Milwaukee Brewers opened their home schedule with a 5-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday.

“Today was a better step in terms of getting back to who I am,” Woodruff said. “I'm not quite on the train tracks yet, but I'm getting there.”

Woodruff (1-1) struck out two and allowed just three hits and a walk. The return to form came five days after he allowed seven runs — matching a career high — and lasted just 3 2/3 innings in a 9-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs. He had opened the loss to Chicago by walking three men and hitting a batter.

The two-time All-Star had no such control problems Thursday, throwing 65 of his 89 pitches for strikes. He also showed his poise while facing adversity in the third inning.

The Cardinals trailed 2-0 but had two on with two outs when Woodruff got ahead of Paul Goldschmidt 1-2 in the count before two borderline pitches got called balls. Goldschmidt then hit an apparent inning-ending grounder but reached on catcher’s interference to load the bases.

Woodruff worked his way out of the jam by getting Tyler O’Neill to hit a fly to shallow right.

“I think last year I probably would have let that get to me a little bit and maybe not executed as well,” Woodruff said. “But in that moment, I just kept telling myself to take a breath, clear it out, reset and worry about the next pitch. I was able to do a pretty good job of that.”

The Brewers gave Woodruff an early lead and delighted an announced sellout of crowd of 42,794 by scoring four runs in the first three innings off Adam Wainwright (1-1).

Kolten Wong ripped Wainwright’s first...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Woodruff-returns-to-form-as-Brewers-defeat-17082297.php