What a nice way for Brandon Woodruff to start his 2026 MLB regular season with the Milwaukee Brewers. Woodruff worked five innings, allowing just four hits and two runs (both earned) as the Brewers defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 6-2 on Tuesday night.

Gary Sánchez and Jake Bauers smashed home runs as the Brewers are now 4-1 on the young season. Woodruff also struck out six Rays batters at American Family Field. With his outing, Woodruff earned his first win.

Woodruff came into this season with a career 54-28 regular season record while also carrying a 3.11 ERA in those games. After his first start, Woodruff's ERA sits at 3.60 with a WHIP of 0.80.

Tampa Bay's Jonathan Aranda opened the scoring on Tuesday night with a solo home run to left-center field. That was Aranda's second homer this season. The Rays extended their lead to 2-0 in the fifth when Nick Fortes smoked his first homer this season over the left-center field wall.

The Brewers, though, answered right back with three runs in the bottom of the fifth. 

With two outs, the Brewers challenged an out call on a tag play. After the play was reviewed, the call was overturned on the field. Brice Turang singled to right field, knocking in Sánchez, Brandon Lockridge, and Joey Ortiz.

Turang reached second base after center fielder Cedric Mullins made an error after failing to catch the ball.

Then, in the bottom of the sixth inning, Sánchez hit his second home run this season on a blast to center field. That put Milwaukee up 4-2 at that point. But wait, there's more. On a 3-2 pitch with two outs in the sixth, Lockridge doubled to right. Bauers scored and that made it 5-2 Brewers.

In the home half of the eighth, Bauers connected for his second home run this season as his dinger cleared the right-center field wall.

Lockridge and Bauers had 2-for-4 nights at the plate, ensuring that Milwaukee's offense kept on rolling.

Rays starting pitcher Shane McClanahan got the loss on Tuesday night.

After Woodruff was removed from the game, Jared Koenig, Grant Anderson, Abner Uribe, and Angel Zerpa kept the Rays' bats in check. 

Even though it's very early in the 2026 MLB season, the Brewers are in first place in the National League Central Division. They are quite familiar with that spot, and they're going to do their best to keep it that way all season long.

The Brewers and Rays will close out this three-game series with a Wednesday afternoon game at American Family Field. First pitch is set for 1:40 p.m. ET (12:40 p.m.  CT).

After a day off on Thursday, Milwaukee will open a three-game weekend series on the road at the Kansas City Royals.

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