William Contreras will look to continue his torrid week when the visiting Milwaukee Brewers play the middle game of their series against the Washington Nationals on Saturday afternoon.
Contreras had a career-high five hits, including his third home run in two games, to lead the Brewers to a 16-9 victory in the opener on Friday.
Since Monday, Contreras is 12-for-19 (.632) with three home runs, five RBIs and nine runs. The Brewers are 3-1 in that span.
Milwaukee’s Brandon Woodruff (2-0, 2.01 ERA) will oppose fellow right-hander Jake Irvin (8-5, 4.69) on Saturday.
Woodruff, who missed all of 2024 and the beginning of this season as he recovered from shoulder surgery, will make his fifth start. He has allowed two earned runs or less in each outing, going six innings in three of four starts. Last time out, he gave up two runs on four hits in six innings of a no-decision against the Miami Marlins, a 3-2 Milwaukee win on Sunday.
Woodruff is 4-0 with a 1.29 ERA in eight games (six starts) against the Nationals. On July 12, he allowed two runs in 4 1/3 innings of a no-decision against them.
Irvin is coming off a strong outing. Last Sunday, he defeated the Minnesota Twins, allowing two runs on five hits over seven innings in a 7-2 game. The 28-year-old, who grew up a Twins fan in Bloomington, was making his first start at Minnesota and had several family and friends in the park.
“[There were] a whole lot of emotions,” Irvin said. “I think the coolest thing was probably warming up, trying to stay locked in but seeing a bunch of familiar faces and people trying to say hello. At the end of the day, it was just awesome to have that support, have that backing here.”
Irvin will try to overcome his history against Milwaukee. He is 0-4 with a 5.84 ERA in five starts against the team.
Friday night, the Brewers pounded out a season-high 25 hits. Blake Perkins homered twice, Andrew Vaughn had three hits, including a home run, and Andruw Monasterio had his first four-hit game for Milwaukee.
The Brewers, who have the best record in the major leagues, have won four of their past five games and are 21 games over .500.
Paul DeJong homered Friday, and CJ Abrams had three hits for Washington, which has lost three straight. The 25 hits allowed by the Nationals were the most in franchise history.
The Nationals, who traded six players for prospects this week, did not go quietly, as they scored five runs in the ninth.
“There’s plenty of opportunity,” said rookie right fielder Daylen Lile, who tripled and doubled. “We’ve got two months left. All we’ve got to do is stay behind each other, keep competing and give our best every day, 110 percent. Then we can look ourselves in the mirror and say we gave it our all.”
Before the game, the Brewers placed outfielder Jackson Chourio on the 10-day injured list with a right hamstring strain.
“It won’t be anytime soon,” manager Pat Murphy said of Chourio’s return, which he noted could be more than a month away. “It was diagnosed a little more severe than we initially thought, but to what extent I’m not exactly sure.”
–Field Level Media
