<p>Brandon Woodruff is stopping the Milwaukee Brewers’ revolving door of opening-day starting pitchers.</p>
<p>Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said Thursday that Woodruff will start the Brewers’ season opener for a second straight year. He will be facing Kenta Maeda when the Brewers host the Minnesota Twins on April 1.</p>
<p>“Any time you can go out, get the ball for the first game and try and set the tone for the year, it’s a huge honor and something I don’t take lightly,” Woodruff said Thursday from the Brewers’ spring training site in Phoenix.</p>
<p>Having the same pitcher start the season opener in back-to-back season is something new for the Brewers. They had a different pitcher start each of the last seven season openers, causing fans to refer to an “opening-day curse.”</p>
<p>“I don’t really pay too much attention,” Woodruff said. “I just think it’s one of those things. I don’t know if anybody went along with that curse, I guess.”</p>
<p>Yovanni Gallardo started his fifth straight season opener in 2014. The list of opening-day starters since is: Kyle Lohse (2015), Wily Peralta (2016), Junior Guerra (2017), Chase Anderson (2018), Jhoulys Chacin (2019) and Woodruff.</p>
<p>Counsell had a couple of good options to start this year’s opener.</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/woodrbr01.shtml">Woodruff, 28, went 3-5 with a 3.05 ERA </a> and 91 strikeouts in 73 2/3 innings last season He <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/NL/2020-pitching-leaders.shtml">tied for the NL lead</a> with 13 starts. <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/burneco01.shtml">Corbin Burnes went 4-1 with a 2.11 ERA</a> and 88 strikeouts in 59 2/3 innings to finish sixth in the Cy Young Award voting.</p>
<p>But Woodruff has the stronger overall track record.</p>
<p>Woodruff went 11-3 with a 3.62 ERA and made the All-Star team in 2019. Burnes’ breakthrough last year followed a 2019 season in which he went 1-5 with an 8.82 ERA.</p>
<p>“Brandon has established himself as a guy who has done it over a bunch of years at this point,” Counsell said. “He’s the guy at the front right now. It’s a bit of a ceremonial nod, as much as anything. I think Brandon earned it. That’s the biggest thing. You try to put a guy there that earned it. That’s what Brandon has done.”</p>
<p>Counsell said Burnes will start the Brewers’ second game April 3 against the Twins.</p>
<p>Woodruff gave up two runs over five innings in last year’s season opener in which the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/mlb-anthony-rizzo-ian-happ-chicago-kyle-hendricks-4f80581ae4981e64f16cebab79fb11b5">Brewers lost 3-0 </a> to the Chicago Cubs, who got a three-hit shutout from Kyle Hendricks.</p>
<p>While Woodruff already has experience pitching a season opener, this year’s assignment is particularly special.</p>
<p>Last year, he was pitching that opener in front of no fans at Wrigley Field. This year, he will be at home with American Family Field filled to 25% capacity. Those spectators figure to include his wife, Jonie, and their daughter, Kyler Alise, <a href="https://twitter.com/brewers/status/1300806930223566849"> who was born Aug. 31.</a></p>
<p>“That’s definitely a memory that we can cherish and look back on one day," Woodruff said. "Just being able to have her in the ballpark is going to be cool — and just being able to have fans in general is a great thing.”</p>
<p>NOTES: Devin Williams, the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/mlb-virus-outbreak-baseball-alec-bohm-san-diego-padres-53bad1d167c475c41feb9616059525d2">2020 NL Rookie of the Year, </a> will make his Cactus League debut Saturday night when he <a href="https://apnews.com/article/mlb-baseball-devin-williams-32c6d35d02bd351218e8f93232378018">works his way back from a sore shoulder </a> that prevented him from pitching in the playoffs. … Saturday also is the night outfielder Lorenzo Cain is expected to play his first spring game after being slowed by a quadriceps issue.</p>
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