MILWAUKEE – Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Brandon Woodruff is following his first appearance in the All-Star Game with his first chance to start the season.
Brewers manager Craig Counsell announced Friday that Woodruff will start when Milwaukee begins the season on July 24 against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Kyle Hendricks will start for the Cubs.
“It’s like the All-Star Game, one of those things they can’t take away from you,” Woodruff said. “It’s a great honor”.
The move came as no surprise after Woodruff joined the National League All-Star team last year and went 11-3 with a 3.62 ERA despite missing nearly two months with a forced oblique left. The Brewers were 18-4 in the games Woodruff started.
“Brandon Woodruff has been the opening day headline since early October,” Counsell joked.
There’s a bit more suspense regarding the headline for the Brewers’ second game.
Counsell said he tentatively plans to go with Brett Anderson for the July 25 game at Wrigley, but the former Oakland Athletics left-hander developed a blister on one of his fingers during an in-school game Wednesday.
“We have to get over the blister problem, just give it a couple of days and see where we are with it,” Counsell said. “Otherwise, we will have to change some things.”
Anderson had a 13-9 record with a 3.89 ERA for Oakland last year before the Brewers signed him with a one-year, $ 5 million contract.
Woodruff becomes the seventh different pitcher for the Brewers to start opening day in the same number of years. Follow Yovani Gallardo (2014), Kyle Lohse (2015), Wily Peralta (2016), Junior Guerra (2017), Chase Anderson (2018) and Jhoulys Chacin (2019).
Woodruff, 27, comes from a 2019 season in which he struck out 143 in 121 2/3 innings. When congratulating Woodruff on this assignment, Counsell said this could be the first of many openings on the opening day of the former Mississippi state 11th round draft pick.
“My goal is to do as many as I can,” Woodruff said. “I think that is the goal of anyone who can start opening day, go out and do it as many years in a row as possible. Hopefully, God willing, I’ll be there for the first game for years to come. That means you’re doing something good “.
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