Brewers split eventful series with the Pirates as Brandon Woodruff makes his long awaited return to the mound

The race has only just begun

The NL Central race is heating up! The Milwaukee Brewers lead the division by just 1.5 games over the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago Cubs. The Reds are in disarray, having been swept by the Washington Nationals.

On the other hand, the Chicago Cubs are scorching hot. The Cubs just took two out of three games from the Atlanta Braves and seem poised to give the Brewers a fight right up to the last series of the season.

The Brewers are neither scorching hot nor in a tailspin at the moment. The Crew split a four-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates over the weekend, alternating wins and losses.

On a positive note, the rookies continued to make an impact and Brandon Woodruff returned to the rotation. Next up is a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies.

Master Brewer Leaderboard (through 113 games)

(The Master Brewer Leaderboard is a season-long leaderboard tracking and ranking exceptional performances from Brewers players in the form of Master Brew Points 🍺, which at the end of the season will tally up to crown our Crewsing for a Brewsing Player of the Year.)

Adrian Houser🍺

Adrian Houser appears to have won the fifth starter role for the time being. He was excellent against Pittsburgh. Houser pitched six innings and only allowed a single run in Milwaukee’s 14-1 win on Thursday.

Brandon Woodruff🍺

Woody returned to the rotation on Sunday and looked like himself. What more could Brewers fans ask for from his first start? The answer is “more runs”, but that wasn’t his fault. Woodruff went five innings and allowed just two runs on a pair of solo homers.

Corbin Burnes🍺

Burnes fought through command issues to turn in an excellent performance against the Pirates. Burnes ended his day after six innings with two runs allowed and five strikeouts.

Abner Uribe🍺

Abner Uribe continues to thrill and be the subject of viral Pitching Ninja tweets. After three more scoreless frames against the Pirates, Uribe’s ERA is down to 1.69 over his first 10.2 big league innings.

Hoby Milner🍺

Hoby Milner is as reliable as a clock that runs on time. Milner threw two scoreless against the Pirates and boasts a 2.17 ERA in 45.2 innings.

Christian Yelich🍺

Yelich went 5-for-16 against the Pirates with three walks, three RBI, and one run scored. Fangraphs posted a great piece the other day by Esteban Rivera about how hitting to the opposite field has helped his renaissance at the plate.

Brice Turang🍺

Brice Turang may be figuring something out at the plate. Is a batting stance change to thank? Time will tell. Turang finished the series against Pittsburgh 5-for-11 with three walks. For the month of August, Turang is 8-for-17 with three walks and no strikeouts.

Sal Frelick🍺

Sal Frelick continues to click at the plate and in the field. During Thursday night’s offensive onslaught Frelick was the star. He ended his day 2-for-3 with two walks, a homer, two runs scored, and five RBI. Have a day, Sal!

Joey Wiemer🍺

Joey Wiemer had a solid series at the plate and continued to show off his incredible athleticism in centerfield. He nearly robbed a homer in Friday’s game and it was truly an absurd display. If he’d caught that ball it might have ripped a hole in the spacetime continuum.

Blake Perkins🍺

Blake Perkins cooked up some late game magic on Saturday. His heads up baserunning gave Sal Frelick the opportunity to tie the game with a single in the bottom of the 9th inning. In the 10th inning, Perkins’ single through the right side of the infield gave Milwaukee a walk-off win.

Carlos Santana🍺

Carlos Santana gets his first beer thanks to a solid series. Santana went 5-for-18 at the plate with two runs scored and two RBI.

Victor Caratini🍺

Victor Caratini played one game and Victor Caratini played well. Also death and taxes, things of that nature. Caratini went 2-for-4 with a single, a double, and two runs scored. His run scored as the zombie runner off of Blake Perkins’ 10th inning single gave the Brewers the win.

Leaderboard through 113 games

Devin Williams: 🍺x26

Joel Payamps: 🍺x22

Christian Yelich: 🍺x21

Corbin Burnes, William Contreras: 🍺x19

Hoby Milner, Joey Wiemer: 🍺x15

Brian Anderson, Elvis Peguero: 🍺x14

Willy Adames, Brice Turang: 🍺x13

Owen Miller, Bryse Wilson: 🍺x12

Peter Strzelecki: 🍺x11

Rowdy Tellez, Victor Caratini: 🍺x10

Freddy Peralta, Wade Miley: 🍺x9

Julio Teheran, Colin Rea, Andruw Monasterio: 🍺x8

Adrian Houser: 🍺x7

Garrett Mitchell, Abner Uribe, Sal Frelick, Blake Perkins: 🍺x5

Jesse Winker: 🍺x4

Jake Cousins, Eric Lauer, Trevor Megill, Tyrone Taylor, Brandon Woodruff: 🍺x3

Gus Varland, Javy Guerra, Raimel Tapia, Abraham Toro: 🍺x2

Mike Brosseau, Luke Voit, Matt Bush, Tyson Miller, Darin Ruf, J.B. Bukauskas, Jahmai Jones, J.C. Meija, Carlos Santana: 🍺