Milwaukee Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff allowed one run over five innings in a rehabilitation start for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers Thursday night in front of 5,733 fans at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium. The Rattlers gave the fans a bonus with a 3-1 victory over the Quad Cities River Bandits.
Woodruff retired the first twelve River Bandits he faced.
The Timber Rattlers (36-29) scored three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to take the lead. Mike Brosseau, who was playing the third game of his rehab assignment from the Brewers, and Tristan Peters singled to put runners on the corners with no outs. Joe Gray Jr drove in Brosseau with a sacrifice fly. Then, Darrien Miller cracked a two-run home run. The homer was Miller’s fourth of the season.
Quad Cities (27-39) got on the board in the top of the fifth. Kale Emshoff hit the first pitch he saw from Woodruff over the wall in center for his tenth home run of the season.
Woodruff retired the next two batters in the fifth before giving up a walk and a single. Woodruff closed out the inning with a strikeout on a 2-2 pitch. Woodruff threw 74 pitches – 48 for strikes – over his five innings of work. He allowed a run on two hits and struck out seven.
The Brewers rehabilitation assignments weren’t done. Trevor Gott, making his second rehab appearance of the series, pitched a 1-2-3 top of the sixth inning with a strikeout.
Christian Tripp was next up out of the bullpen for the Timber Rattlers, and he worked a perfect seventh. However, a double and a walk to start the eighth inning was the end of the night for Tripp.
James Meeker was called into the game and got the first out on a sacrifice bunt that moved both runners into scoring position. Meeker got the second out on a strikeout and stranded both runners on a flyout.
Meeker nailed down the save with a scoreless ninth inning. It was his fourth save of the season.
Game four of the series is Friday night and it is also the first game of the second half of the Midwest League season. Justin Jarvis (5-3, 4.04) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Quad Cities has named Charlie Neuweiler (4-5, 5.19) as their starter. Game time is 6:40pm.
