Game Thread #20: Milwaukee Brewers (11-8) @ Miami Marlins (9-11)

It hasn’t exactly been pretty, but after losing six in a row, the Brewers are on a three-game win streak, which they’ll look to extend this afternoon in Miami.

Milwaukee almost gave away last night’s game after they led almost the whole way, but managed to pick up a win in extra innings. In the second game of this three-game set with the Marlins, we will see a marquee matchup of two pitchers who are still somewhat in the recovery phase from long injury layoffs: Brandon Woodruff takes the hill for Milwaukee, while Sandy Alcantara will pitch for the Fish.

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Woodruff last pitched on Sunday versus the Washington Nationals, and pitched quite well. In six innings (for which he needed only 70 pitches), Woodruff allowed just three hits, two walks (one of which was intentional), and two runs, one of which was unearned. He left with a 3-2 lead, but the bullpen couldn’t hold it and the Brewers lost that game 8-6. Regardless of the team’s result, it was a nice bounce back for Woodruff, who struggled in his previous outing in Boston. In three starts this year, Woodruff has a 4.32 ERA and 4.29 FIP, and he has typically kept his walks low (just three unintentional walks in 16 2/3 innings). He is striking out about one batter per inning.

Alcantara, who missed the entire 2024 season after Tommy John surgery, is finally starting to look like the pitcher who won the 2022 NL Cy Young Award. Always a workhorse, Alcantara made 31 starts in 2025 but he struggled to be effective and had an ERA of 5.36 in almost 175 innings. Some of that was attributable to bad luck and/or defense (his FIP was better, at 4.28), but either way, the Alcantara we saw in 2025 was a far cry from the Alcantara of 2022 (though not that much different, in many ways, than the Alcantara of 2023). He is still only 30, so the fact that he’s performing quite well thus far in 2026 shouldn’t be a shock: in four starts, Alcantara leads the league with 30.1 innings pitched and owns a 2.67 ERA and 3.68 FIP.

Like Woodruff, Alcantara has traditionally kept his walks low, and he’s doing that better this season than in any other season of his career (just 1.8 per nine innings). But Alcantara’s strikeouts are also down to just 6.5 per nine innings; he has never been a big strikeout pitcher, but that’s still down significantly from his peak seasons. Of course, the lack of strikeouts serve to help Alcantara’s efficiency, contributing to the fact that he’s pitched over 170 innings in each of his last five full seasons. Efficiency and his traditional workhorse attitude make it not all that surprising that Alcantara owns the only shutout in baseball this year, which he did on April 1st against the White Sox—on just 93 pitches.

Milwaukee also made a move today, though maybe not the expected one. After his excellent performance in yesterday’s game, Coleman Crow was optioned back to Triple-A Nashville, as Milwaukee needs another bullpen arm. That bullpen arm wasn’t Robert Gasser, though, as many expected after he did not make a scheduled appearance for the Sounds last night. Instead, Carlos Rodriguez has been recalled. Rodriguez, who is still only 24, has appeared in seven games over the past two seasons and has a career ERA of 6.95 in 22 innings. In 10 1/3 innings for Nashville this season, Rodriguez has allowed 10 earned runs. Not what you want! This move makes some sense if the Brewers want to keep Gasser (and Logan Henderson) on regular starter rest, but especially when Jake Woodford can’t get into a game, I’d have preferred someone who might actually be given the opportunity to help in a close game.