Woodruff Strikes Out Five In Rehab Start

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IL Nashville Sounds

Woodruff Strikes Out Five In Rehab Start

April 12, 2025 - International League (IL)
Nashville Sounds News Release


NASHVILLE - The Sounds earned their first series win of the 2025 season, taking down the Memphis Redbirds 6-2 on Saturday night at First Horizon Park. Brandon Woodruff made the first appearance of his rehab assignment and his first regular season action since September 23, 2023, after missing all of 2024 while recovering from right shoulder surgery. Woodruff threw 66 pitches and covered 3.2 IP while allowing four hits and two earned runs with five strikeouts and a pair of walks.

The offense gave the two-time National League All-Star a bit of breathing room in the first inning. The Sounds scored in their first trip to the plate for the fourth straight game and made it five-for-five scoring first in the series. Brewers' no. 22-rated prospect Caleb Durbin hit the first of his two doubles on the night to put himself and Jared Oliva into scoring position after the latter drew a one-out walk. Ernesto Martinez Jr. drove in both with a single to give Nashville a 2-0 lead.

Durbin once again doubled in the bottom of the third and Martinez Jr. made it a four RBI night with a towering 435-foot home run that came off the bat at 111 mph for his second home run of the series. A leadoff walk drawn by Jose Barrero came around to be the first run allowed by Woodruff. Barrero stole second and scored on the first of consecutive singles allowed by the Nashville starter. A sac fly cut the Sounds lead in half and was the final batter faced by Woodruff. Garrett Stallings replaced him on the mound and struck out Wade Stauss before working a 1-2-3 top of the fifth en route to his first win of the season.

With the bases loaded and one out, Freddy Zamora pinch hit for Jorge Alfaro in the bottom of the fifth and delivered a two-RBI single for his first hit and RBI of the early season. Right-handers Jesus Liranzo and Easton McGee combined to allow one hit over their three innings with five strikeouts and a walk to keep the Redbirds at bay.

Blake Holub entered the game in the top of the ninth for the Sounds. A walk, strikeout, single, and another walk loaded the bases for the Memphis and sent Stauss to the plate to serve as the potential game-tying run. Holub struck him out and then got the Memphis leadoff man, Jose Fermin, to fly out and slam the door on the Redbirds.

Nashville and Memphis will wrap up their first series against each other with some Sunday afternoon baseball at First Horizon Park. RHP Tobias Myers is scheduled to make his second rehab start of the series. It'll be a repeat of the same pitching matchup from Tuesday with RHP Ian Bedell (0-1, 11.81 ERA) taking the ball for the Redbirds. First pitch is scheduled for 2:05 p.m.

POSTGAME NOTES:

FIVE KLAPS AND A BIG WOO: In his first regular season game action since the end of the 2023 season, RHP Brandon Woodruff tossed 66 pitches (44 strikes) and worked 3.2 IP in the first start of his rehab assignment with Nashville. He allowed four hits - all singles - and two earned runs, both of which came in the top of the fourth and his final inning of work. He struck out five and touched 95 MPH with his fastball while mixing in some changeups into his pitch mix. Woodruff made one Cactus League appearance in spring training for the Brewers, pitching an inning on March 16th in which he threw 16 pitches.

NOTHING JR. ABOUT IT: Ernesto Martinez Jr. turned on a hanging curveball and sent it 435-feet in the Nashville night with an exit velocity of 111 MPH for his second home run of the series. After having the night off on Friday, Martinez was back to his cleanup spot in the Sounds lineup and delivered a 2-for-3 night at the plate that included a season-high four RBI. Martinez Jr. has a multi-hit game in all four of the games he has played for in the series and his hitting .571 (8-for-14) with two home runs, eight RBI, three walks, four runs scored, and only two strikeouts on the week with a game still to play as he makes a case for International League Player of the Week. He enters Sunday's series finale riding a four-game hit streak which is the longest active streak on the team after Jorge Alfaro saw his five-game streak come to an end on Saturday night.

DOUBLE DOWN DURBIN: Caleb Durbin, the Brewers' no. 22-ranked prospect, and the only position player in the Brewers Top 30 on the Sounds roster, turned in a 2-for-4 night at the plate that included a pair of doubles, and three runs scored. They were the fourth and fifth doubles of the year for Durbin, who leads the club in two-baggers and is now T-6th in the International League. He is the first Nashville player with two doubles in a game, and first since Vinny Capra who had a pair of doubles for Nashville on September 4, 2024, against the Gwinnett Stripers. It was Durbin's sixth career game with 2+ doubles in a game and the first in more than a year with his last coming on April 7, 2024, against Syracuse when he was with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

DOUBLE DIGITS: Although Anthony Seigler saw his four-game hitting streak come to an end with a 0-for-3 night at the plate, he did draw a walk to give himself a 10-game on-base streak, best on the team this year and tied for the seventh-longest streak in the International League. The Sounds had 12 players have an on-base streak of 10+ games last year, with the last being a 13-game on-base streak by Brewer Hicklen that went from August 22 - September 18 last season. It's the sixth time in Seigler's professional career that he has had an on-base streak of 10+ games. He posted a 17-game streak last year with Double-A Somerset. He set his career-high with an 18-game on-base streak in the 2019 season when he was playing with the Charleston RiverDogs.

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