Scott Barringer was the last person on the planet that Brewers fans wanted to see running to the mound six pitches into Thursday afternoon’s series finale in Philadelphia.

Barringer is Milwaukee’s head athletic trainer, and he was hustling to check on Brandon Woodruff after the Brewers’ ace began the day by missing the strike zone on six consecutive pitches. Considering that Milwaukee’s injured list is already a mile long, it came as quite a relief when Woodruff not only remained in the game but dazzled, matching the Phillies’ Zack Wheeler fastball for fastball in a pitchers' duel worth every bit of the billing.

Woodruff blinked first in a 2-0 loss at Citizens Bank Park that sealed a four-game Philadelphia sweep. Wheeler didn’t blink at all, going the distance on 118 pitches.

“It was nothing arm-related or anything like that,” Woodruff said of the early visit. “I had a blister on the top of my foot from a couple of outings ago. The plastic they put over the cleat for pitchers was kind of cutting up against my foot and that was it. I told them I was good, it wasn't bothering me. It was nothing big.”

Woodruff hummed along until Philadelphia third baseman Alec Bohm, 0-for-2 in the game and 1-for-11 with six strikeouts to that point in the series, smashed a seventh-inning fastball for a solo homer and the game’s first run. Woodruff recorded one more out and that was the end of a fantastic bounce-back outing; he was charged with that lone run on only two hits, with 11 strikeouts to go with those two early walks, all on 103 pitches. He is the first Brewers pitcher to crack the century mark in pitches this season. Bohm marked the occasion by hitting pitch No. 100 for the homer.

"I'm sure if you ask him, that's not where he wanted that ball -- and I got my barrel to it," Bohm said.

Bingo.

“I served him up,” Woodruff said. “It was not the right pitch. It's tough, man. Wheeler was on his game today so you have to match him with zeros. I think the pitch I threw right before the home run [a slider for a called strike at the bottom of the zone] told me all I needed to know, but I just didn't listen.

“Bad pitch and bad execution is what added to that and it was right where he likes to hit the ball. That was all my fault.”

Milwaukee’s longest losing streak this season extended to five games because the offense couldn’t do anything against Wheeler. Billy McKinney’s double inside first base leading off the third inning was the only hit off Wheeler through eight innings, and McKinney was promptly erased on a line-drive double play off the bat of Luke Maile. It was rare hard contact for the Brewers, who struck out eight times in the finale and 39 times over the four-game series.

For the fourth straight day, a ninth-inning rally was thwarted. Milwaukee had the potential tying run on base in every game of the series, including on Thursday, when pinch-hitters Lorenzo Cain and Avisaíl García each singled to give Kolten Wong and Daniel Vogelbach two cracks at tying the game or taking the lead. Wong finally flied out on the eighth pitch of his at-bat, with Wheeler still touching 97.2 mph. Vogelbach popped out on a first-pitch slider, and that was that.

"It’s 97 [mph] on pitch 117, you know? It's the whole game,” manager Craig Counsell said. “It never lets up.”

Milwaukee has not led at the end of a single inning during its five-game skid.

While they try to get their offense going, the Brewers will take more of the same from Woodruff, who has delivered six consecutive quality starts. His 1.73 ERA is fifth best in franchise history through a pitcher’s first seven games in a season, when all of those appearances are starts. Only Ricky Bones (1.46 ERA through seven starts in 1994), Zach Davies (1.56 ERA in 2019), CC Sabathia (1.58 ERA after a midseason trade to Milwaukee in 2008) and Cal Eldred (1.71 ERA in 1992) have been better in their first seven starts for the Brewers in a season.

“Obviously, coming off a big series against the Dodgers,” said Woodruff, referring to the team winning three of four against L.A. at home before hitting the road, “we knew Philadelphia was a good team. They threw the ball well and jumped on us early every single game. We hung in there, but weren't able to get the big hit.

“It's tough. Every team is going to go through a little stretch like this. We're not playing bad baseball. We just ran into a good team that played better than us for four games. No panic. We just have to keep plugging along, and we'll start winning some ballgames.”