Woodruff stung for 3 HRs in duel vs. Wheeler

MILWAUKEE -- Brandon Woodruff became the 16th pitcher to log 500 strikeouts in a Brewers uniform, but this is not the time of year for personal milestones.

Outpitched by fellow National League Cy Young Award contender Zack Wheeler on a sunny Labor Day at American Family Field, Woodruff gave up three home runs in a game for the first time in his career and found himself on the business end of a 12-0 loss to the Phillies on Monday in which the visitors hit as many home runs -- six -- as the Brewers had hits.

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"This is a division leader, a division winner probably,” said Phillies first baseman Brad Miller, who homered off Woodruff in the fourth inning and went deep again off Brewers backup catcher Luke Maile in the ninth after the game got out of hand. “I kind of viewed today like, ‘Hey, if we want to be in the playoffs and win series and keep advancing, you have to beat these studs like Woodruff."

Woodruff and the Brewers are having one of their best regular seasons ever, though you wouldn’t know it from their results against the Phillies so far. After putting Monday’s game away with a seven-run eighth inning that included Jean Segura’s grand slam, Philadelphia has won each of the first five games between these teams including a pair of Wheeler-Woodruff matchups.

In his two starts against Milwaukee, Wheeler has pitched 15 scoreless innings with no walks and 17 strikeouts.

“Getting in the box and seeing it, he's tough,” Woodruff said. “He throws hard. That cutter he throws is late. He can hit, too. He's been really good. Just a workhorse for them. He's thrown a lot of innings. He's good. He's really good.”

So are the Phillies’ hitters, Woodruff said.

“They've got a lot of guys who can take you out, like they did today,” Woodruff said. “I think you just have to really make pitches from pitch one. Kind of like San Francisco in a way. Any time you face good Major League lineups and make mistakes, they make you pay for them. That's what they did today.

“You just take the punches, make an adjustment and get ready for the next one. That's all it is.”

The day was not a total loss for the Brewers (84-55). With a Reds (73-66) loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field, Milwaukee maintained its 11-game lead in the National League Central, and the magic number to clinch the division fell to 13.

Wheeler was 1-3 with a 6.41 ERA over his previous four starts while allowing four, six, five and four earned runs. He threw 99 pitches over six scoreless innings to drop his ERA back under 3.00 to 2.91, scattering five Brewers hits with no walks and nine strikeouts.

It helped that Wheeler worked with a lead all day. Bryce Harper hit a misplaced fastball for a two-run home run off Woodruff three batters into the game, and Freddy Galvis and Brad Miller subsequently hit solo shots to grow the lead to 4-0 against Woodruff. Making his 89th regular-season appearance and 74th start, Woodruff had surrendered two home runs in a game on nine previous occasions, but never had surrendered three.

“I think it was a matter of missed location, just getting a little too predictable and just not making a pitch,” Woodruff said. “I think that was kind of the theme there. Most teams are coming out for the fastball. You could see early on that they were doing that but I didn't make the adjustment to get the off-speed. I made essentially three bad pitches there that cost me long balls. You can live with solo homers, but the two-run homers hurt you. I didn't make the adjustment in time.”

Woodruff allowed only two more hits after Miller’s homer and pitched into the seventh inning, matching his season high with nine hits allowed. The outing left Woodruff with a 2.48 ERA and 191 strikeouts in 163 1/3 innings this season.

Wheeler, meanwhile, never blinked. Brewers manager Craig Counsell views his unsightly ERA in recent outings as deceptive.

“We looked at them actually,” Counsell said. “It hasn't been ‘loud.’ He has given up runs, but he's pitched pretty well, frankly. I was hopeful there was something else there but he's been pitching pretty well.”

Asked about the possibility of a hangover after the elation of Sunday’s walk-off grand slam against the Cardinals, Counsell said: “We got beat by a good starting pitcher today. The score got out of hand at the end but we got beat by a good starting pitcher.”