The Milwaukee Brewers avoided a sweep at the hands of the Braves by picking up a comfortable 9-4 victory on Sunday. Their six-day road trip continues today in Cincinnati, where the Brewers will face their division rivals for the first time in the 2026 season. Tonight also marks the return of franchise legend Brandon Woodruff, who will make his first start since he had to leave an outing on April 30th when he couldn’t get his fastball past warm-up speed. To make room on the roster, lefty Drew Rom has been optioned back to Nashville. (That move is mildly surprising; I’m all for Craig Yoho getting more shots in the Brewer bullpen, but if Shane Drohan and Robert Gasser both pitch out in the rotation, that leaves Aaron Ashby as the only left-handed reliever.)
Woodruff seems to have overcome that sudden loss in velocity. In two rehab starts, Woodruff was working in the low 90s, about where he was at the beginning of the season. Woodruff pitched 5 1/3 innings and threw 82 pitches in his last outing on Tuesday with High-A Wisconsin, so if things are going well he should be able to get close to a full workload. In six starts with the Brewers prior to his time on the injured list, Woodruff worked to a 3.60 ERA and 3.97 FIP in 30 innings pitched.
Cincinnati’s starter this evening is the right-hander Brady Singer. It’s been a bit of a tough go for the 29-year-old in his second season with the Reds; in 14 starts and 66 innings, Singer owns a 5.32 ERA (83 ERA+) but even more unsightly 6.15 FIP. His struggles have been because of the long ball: Singer has allowed 17 home runs in his 66 innings, and his 2.3 home runs allowed per nine innings are more than double his previous career high (in a remarkable show of consistency, Singer allowed either 1.0 or 1.1 HR/9 in each of his previous six seasons). Singer is also striking out batters at a career-low rate (7.1 per nine), and that combination has led to issues. He’s been better lately, though, and hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs in any of his last three starts.
Perhaps related to the ball he took off his shin during yesterday’s series finale in Atlanta, Cooper Pratt is not in the lineup for the first time since his promotion on Tuesday. Instead, the Brewers will roll with Joey Ortiz at shortstop and David Hamilton at third base, with Brice Turang and Jake Bauers on the right side. Jackson Chourio, Garrett Mitchell, and Sal Frelick make up the outfield, while William Contreras (who had four hits yesterday) and Christian Yelich round out the lineup.
First pitch is at 6:10 p.m. on Brewers TV and the Brewers Radio Network.