Sproat's career-high 10 K's give Brewers double-digit déjà vu

CINCINNATI -- Veteran Brandon Woodruff set the standard in the series opener. All rookie Brandon Sproat had to do on Tuesday was play follow the leader.

“That’s all the scouting report was: Go do what ‘Woo’ did,” Sproat said.

Twenty four hours apart, the two right-handers delivered nearly identical performances at Great American Ball Park: Six scoreless innings, one hit, no walks, 10 strikeouts and no-hit bids into the sixth inning of back-to-back victories over the Reds, including Tuesday’s 2-0 Brewers win behind Sproat’s best start of his budding career.

The 25-year-old’s 10 strikeouts set a career high, and Sproat might have kept going beyond his 80 pitches if not for some minor calf tightness. His performance followed a successful return from the injured list for Woodruff, who retired the Reds’ first 16 hitters on Monday night before yielding a single with one out in the sixth.

According to Elias, Woodruff and Sproat are only the second Brewers duo to go six-plus scoreless innings allowing one or no hits with 10-plus strikeouts in back-to-back team games. The first was Corbin Burnes and Woodruff on Sept. 9 and 11, 2020, against the Tigers and Cubs.

Talk about pitching being contagious.

“One hundred percent,” Sproat said. “Guys have a good outing one day, and it’s one of those things as a pitcher, whether it’s ‘Miz’ [Jacob Misiorowski], ‘Harry’ [Kyle Harrison] or Woo, ‘Hey, what was working for you today? What did you see from your perspective?’ Then you take it over to the next day when you’re starting.

“Anything in this game is contagious, from the pitching to the hitting to the defense.”

And here’s another nugget from Elias: The Brewers are riding a streak of five consecutive quality starts for the first time since July 22-26, 2023. Left-hander Shane Drohan will aim to keep that going when he starts Wednesday’s series finale with Milwaukee seeking a sweep.

If it’s another close game, the Brewers may have to get creative in the late innings after hard-worked relievers Aaron Ashby, Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill finished a two-hit shutout in which their pitchers faced only one batter more than the minimum, and their hitters made Sproat a winner by snapping a scoreless tie in the top of the sixth, when Andrew Vaughn took a two-out walk and scored on Jake Bauers’ triple that knocked around in the right-field corner.

At that point, Sproat had not allowed a hit. The only blemish on his outing was a curveball in a 1-1 count with two outs in the fourth inning that hit Reds left fielder JJ Bleday’s back foot. Bleday advanced on a wild pitch but was frozen when Sproat retired Sal Stewart for strikeout No. 7 on the night, matching a career high that Sproat set in this ballpark last September during his Major League debut with the Mets, and tied again while pitching for the Brewers on May 24 against the Dodgers.

Sproat set a new career high with strikeouts Nos. 8 and 9 in a perfect fifth inning, then recorded his first double-digit-strikeout game with an inning-ending whiff of Blake Dunn in the sixth. By then, his bid for a no-hitter had ended. Reds catcher Jose Trevino led off that inning with a clean single.

“The thing in my opinion that’s really helped me is [pitching coach Chris Hook] has been persistent on just being athletic,” Sproat said. “I think the words we used the other day were 'convicted athleticism.' That just allows me on the mound to be athletic. It allows me to be free. The arm feels real whippy through the motion.”

He’ll try to carry the same mindset into his next start. As things are lined up, Sproat will face the Reds again next week in Milwaukee.

“He was dominant. He was great,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “Best outing of the year. Best stuff of the year.”

It kept Brewers starting pitchers on a roll on this road trip.

“It helps us in the bullpen, that’s for sure,” Megill said. “We’ve seen a few weeks this year where you’re looking around [the bullpen] like, ‘Who do we have down here?’ The sky is falling down for a second, and then you take a deep breath and get past a game or two, and everything kind of resets when a guy goes six, seven, eight [innings].

“Tip the cap to the starting pitchers. They’re out there grinding and they’re getting it done for us right now.”