ANAHEIM -- Christian Yelich hit a pair of run-scoring singles, but the Brewers found themselves on the wrong side of a sweep for the first time since last year’s All-Star break.
The Angels scored all four of their runs against Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff in the third inning on their way to a 4-2 win Wednesday to sweep the three-game series at Angel Stadium.
It was the Brewers’ first series loss this season and only the second series loss in their last 16 sets dating to last year. They hadn’t been swept since they lost all five games in rainy Pittsburgh to finish the first half of 2018, prior to a second-half surge that lifted Milwaukee to a division crown.
“It’s still early,” Woodruff said. “We’ll look back on these games, and you won’t even think about them towards the end of the season when we’re winning a lot of ballgames.”
Here are three takeaways from a three-game sweep:
1. The rotation requires patience
In their eight 2019 starts to date, young starters Woodruff, Freddy Peralta and Corbin Burnes have combined to allow 32 earned runs on 44 hits, including 10 home runs in 39 1/3 innings. Woodruff has been the best of the three so far, with 20 strikeouts and 0.6 wins above replacement. Burnes has the most work to do; he has given up three home runs in each of his first two outings.
The Brewers are committed to all three as starters and have expressed willingness to let each player settle into his first full season in the rotation.
Of his own results so far, Woodruff said, “As a competitor, I don’t like it.”
He was undone by one bad inning. Woodruff allowed four runs on three hits, a walk and a hit batsman in the third, compared to one baserunner in five other scoreless frames. The Angels’ rally began with Woodruff hitting the leadoff man, Kevan Smith, with a breaking ball. Six batters later, Albert Pujols’ run-scoring double-play made it a 4-1 game -- and it could have been worse had third baseman Mike Moustakas not made what Woodruff called a “dang good play” on Pujols’ sharp grounder.
That was the first of 11 batters in a row retired by Woodruff to finish the 26-year-old’s outing.
“They got aggressive, and I didn’t make good pitches in the right spot,” Woodruff said. “That’s part of the process of learning. The more and more you get in those situations, the more comfortable you’ll be and make the right pitches. It’s more positives than negatives, but the negatives hurt me tonight.”
2. The offense can be more consistent
The Brewers out-hit the Angels in the series, 23-22, but were 4-for-19 with runners in scoring position compared to the Angels’ 9-for-24. The previous series against the Cubs’ struggling pitching staff was better. The Brewers scored 25 runs in that three-game set.
First baseman Jesús Aguilar (.111/.238/.111) and third baseman Travis Shaw (.154/.327/.231) have yet to drive the baseball in the middle of the order, but the past week has brought more promising results for Yasmani Grandal (three home runs, .571 on-base percentage in his last seven games) and Orlando Arcia (.526 OBP in his last six games). Grandal may have just missed a home run in the second inning of the series finale. Angels center fielder Brian Goodwin, filling in for an injured Mike Trout, made a leaping catch at the warning track and later told Grandal he thought the fly ball would have cleared the fence.
“This early in the year, guys are trying to figure things out,” Grandal said. “Even though a lot of these guys have played with each other, it’s completely different now that our lineup is as deep as it is. I’m not too worried.”
3. It doesn’t get easier
The Brewers will try to regroup Friday up the road at Dodger Stadium in a weekend rematch of last year’s National League Championship Series. It continues Milwaukee’s tough early season slate.
The next 13 games are against the Dodgers and Cardinals.
“We’re fine,” said Shaw, who was forced from Wednesday’s game after he was hit on the right hand by a pitch. “It’s still the second week of April. Long way to go. We started off pretty well; we just have to rebound now and come ready to go on Friday.”