ST. PETERSBURG – Brandon Woodruff was shocked when he was asked if he wanted the ninth inning of World Series Game 3 on Monday night at Tropicana Field. Even though he was out in the Brewers’ bullpen, he said he’d been told to prepare to start Game 4 against the Rays.
He was even more surprised to see who was asking.
It was Bryn Hester, a member of the organization’s athletic training staff since late 2021 who has spent so many hours helping Woodruff rehab multiple shoulder injuries that neither man can even hazard a guess at a number. Let’s just say they have spent many punishing hours together over the past three years.
“Do you want to throw the ninth or do you want tomorrow?” Hester asked.
Woodruff: “I want it right now.”
He got it, and while he yielded a run on a swinging bunt single and Yandy Díaz’s two-out double to spoil the Brewers’ shutout bid, Woodruff rebounded to record the third and final out of a 10-1 win that put Milwaukee one victory away from winning the World Series.
Woodruff knows better than anyone what that would mean. He was drafted by the Brewers in the 11th round in 2014 and he debuted three years later, making him the organization’s longest-tenured player. Christian Yelich arrived a year later, and Milwaukee took off.
Hester knows what being a part of this means to Woodruff. So when pitching coordinator Jim Henderson asked Hester if he wanted to go check whether Woodruff wanted the ball, that was an easy yes, too.
“It’s all about him,” Hester said. “I’m just thankful I got to be a part of it. He means a lot. This is a really cool opportunity to get to see him back.”
That doesn’t typically happen because Hester spends the early innings of games in the training room, getting players ready. Sometimes, if circumstances cooperate, Hester finishes the game in the dugout, but Woodruff always has been finished with his start by then.
Monday, then, marked the very first time that Hester got to see with his own eyes Woodruff pitch in a Major League game.
“It just happened to be, I was out there,” Hester said.
“That’s pretty fitting,” Woodruff said.
First, Woodruff needed to see if he could actually get ready in time. So he hustled inside the clubhouse briefly to get hot, then returned to the bullpen to warm up for his first postseason appearance since the 2021 National League Division Series against the Braves. The Brewers have made the postseason four more times since then, but until Monday night, Woodruff had been an observer, sidelined by shoulder issues stemming from a major surgery in October 2023.
Woodruff came back in 2025 only to go down again during the final week of the regular season. He came back again in 2026 and even made the Opening Day roster, only to go down again on April 30 and again on July 4. More shoulder trouble.
This time, it was supposed to be over. In a press conference on July 18, Woodruff said he would need another season-ending surgery. He reminded everybody he was not “having a funeral.” But in a way, it felt like one. After accepting a qualifying offer last winter that secured the highest single-season salary in club history for a pitcher, Woodruff would be a free agent again.
But as the days of August ticked away, there was no news of surgery. A follow-up scan had shown some healing. Woodruff pondered trying a comeback. His surgeon, Dr. Keith Meister, approved. Everything would have to go just right, and the Brewers would have to make it all the way to the World Series.
It did. They did.
And on the morning of World Series Game 1, the Brewers released a roster with Woodruff’s name on it. Now he’s in the box score.
“I had this plan of how I wanted it to happen,” Woodruff said. “It didn’t go as planned at all, which is the beauty of this thing. I just started firing baseballs.”
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
Even when Woodruff started throwing again, it was hard. For the first two to three weeks, it took him 70-80 throws to get loose and “feel decent.” But while the Brewers were sweeping the Dodgers and Woodruff was coming off a second mound session, it began to get easier.
“Tonight, I didn’t have much trouble getting loose,” Woodruff said. “Some adrenaline was flowing.”
The Brewers fans who turned Tropicana Field into American Family Field South cheered so loud that Woodruff heard them even though he was so locked in. When he got to the mound, he didn’t take a moment to soak it in. Maybe that was a mistake. But he was too focused.
“I wish I would have peeked a little bit more, just looked around a little bit,” Woodruff said. “But as fun as that was, we still have to win one more game. That’s the priority.”
Logic says Woodruff won’t be available for Game 4 on Tuesday or a possible Game 5 on Wednesday, not after all he has been through.
But he can’t help himself. None of this is particularly logical.
“Maybe I’m crazy,” Woodruff said. “I’ll try to be ready to go again tomorrow. We’ve got one more to win.”
Why not?
“It doesn’t all make sense, I’ll put it to you that way,” Hester said. “But somehow he found a way.”