MIAMI -- Brandon Woodruff's first Major League pitch in 652 days was a strike. His first out was a strikeout. His first two innings were perfect. His third inning featured a fastball that lit the stadium scoreboard at 96 mph.
After right shoulder surgery and a grueling rehab stretched even longer by a sore right ankle and a line drive off the elbow, Big Woo was finally back.
And it could not have gone much better.
Woodruff surrendered a solo home run in the fifth inning but was otherwise vintage in his long-awaited return to the Brewers’ rotation, striking out eight and working six inspired innings on 70 pitches before departing with the lead in what became a 3-1 win over the Marlins at loanDepot park.
“Honestly, I had no expectations. I had none at all,” Woodruff said. “There were different waves of it. I'd be sitting here, and it's like, 'Man, I'm about to throw my first game in two years.' And just quietly think to myself, like, 'This is such a cool deal.'”
It was a cool deal for everyone involved, since there were real concerns over the past two years about the 32-year-old’s future. Woodruff, the organization’s longest-tenured player and all-time ERA leader among pitchers who have worked at least 500 innings, was sidelined after a Sept. 23, 2023, start in Miami. He needed a major shoulder repair that necessitated a comeback so long that his 4-year-old daughter, Kyler, couldn’t remember seeing dad pitch in the big leagues. Woodruff’s son, Bowen, who turns 1 this week, had never seen dad pitch.
They were in the stands with his wife, Jonie Woodruff, for an emotional day for the family that began right where Brandon left off. He struck out a pair of batters in a 1-2-3 first inning and was off and running. In the second, he dialed up a 95.7 mph fastball for a strikeout of Marlins center fielder Dane Myers that proved Woodruff’s firmest pitch of the day.
Miami’s only damage off Woodruff came from left fielder Heriberto Hernandez, who singled in the third inning and hit an 0-2 sweeper for a solo home run with two outs in the fifth. Woodruff responded by striking out third baseman Connor Norby, touching 95.6 mph for a swinging strike three.
“That was probably one of the three times I looked at the radar gun, because I knew when it left my hand that it felt good,” Woodruff said.
It looked good, too.
“Nobody could have predicted six innings of two-hit ball,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “He was sensational. Any worries anybody had about this guy being able to pitch in his future or whatever -- wow. … He came back with a focus and mentality that is good for every pitcher to see out there. For [Jacob] Misiorowski to watch that out there? For [Quinn] Priester? They’re like, ‘Whoa, that’s the big fuss about Big Woo.’”
It’s Big Woo 2.0. Besides the new sweeper, Woodruff debuted his new cutter, which is a harder, more vertical version of the slider he threw pre-surgery. He was also surprised by the quality of his changeup, which didn’t cooperate during his Minor League starts.
By the end of the fifth, Woodruff alerted Milwaukee's coaches that he was nearing the end of his day, and by then, the Brewers had supplied Woodruff a lead against Marlins starter Edward Cabrera. In the third, Christian Yelich legged out a two-out single -- he was initially called out, but Milwaukee successfully challenged -- and that hustle proved vital when Jackson Chourio followed with a home run to make it 2-0.
That proved enough, though Chourio added a sacrifice fly in the eighth to make things a little easier for the relief trio -- Grant Anderson, Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill (20th save) -- that sealed a victory for Woodruff.
It was Yelich who addressed the team on Sunday morning about Woodruff’s return and what he means to the organization. Later, Yelich told reporters he thought it was important to recognize the magnitude of the moment as a group.
“A lot of these guys in this room haven’t seen him pitch before, haven’t seen him complete. They’ve just seen him work and rehab,” Yelich said. “It’s tough, man. The rehab process isn’t easy. There’s a lot of days when you doubt if you can even make it back.”
Sunday wasn’t one of those days.
“A few of us have seen that version of Woody,” Yelich said. “He was just rolling today and looked like his old self.”
Woodruff is eager to move to the next phase, answering questions about pitching instead of the status of his rehab. That was one of the big challenges during his comeback, talking about himself when he would rather be helping the team.
“It was just getting back out there, but then that ‘compete’ mode took over and I really wanted to win the game,” Woodruff said. “That's really all you care about, giving the team a chance to win, and thankfully I was able to do it. Going forward, I'll take one outing at a time and see where we're at at the end of the year, like always. Hopefully, I can just hop back on this train and keep the momentum going.”
Milwaukee’s baseball fans will get their own look next weekend against the Nationals. The Brewers haven’t yet set the rotation for that series, but Woodruff would be lined up for Saturday. It will be an event two years in the making.
“Two years, you get emotional thinking about what this kid has been through,” Murphy said. “Then to see him go out and compete like that? It just sets an example for everyone else.”