Brewers 7, Pirates 3: Milwaukee's best pitcher? It's late-season Brandon Woodruff. And he's back.

PITTSBURGH – The Milwaukee Brewers boast a recent Cy Young winner on their pitching staff in Corbin Burnes. They have one of baseball's best swing-and-miss starters in Freddy Peralta. They have arguably the top closer in the game in Devin Williams.

But when the temperatures dip, the pressure intensifies and the games carry more significance, there is no more intimidating sight that the Brewers can throw at opponents than all 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds of Brandon Woodruff standing on the mound, his glove covering nearly all of his face, his menacing eyes protruding from underneath his cap moments before unleashing a venomous fastball.

Give Woodruff the ball any time of year and the Brewers will feel good about their chances.

Give it to him in September or October and they're one step closer to champagne.

Woodruff made his first start of September, the unofficial kickoff of the pennant chase, on Tuesday night at PNC Park and did what he does when the chips are being pushed into the middle.

He dominated.

Woodruff threw seven scoreless innings to lead the Brewers past the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-3, striking out six and allowing only two hits and two walks while not permitting a single runner to reach second base.

"I thought it was a game where he got stronger as the game went on and really got into cruise control," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. "Every pitch was working good. The fastball felt like it got better as the game went on. Just a great outing."

Brandon Woodruff delivers best outing since returning from the injured list

Woodruff missed nearly four months with a subscapular strain suffered at the beginning of the season. As he approached a return this summer, which eventually came August 6, he spoke of not having too many expectations of how he would perform and how that flew in the face of his bulldog, competitive nature.

He has to be pleased with the results.

Against the Pirates, Woodruff delivered maybe his best start since returning from the injured list but it was far from his lone strong outing. It lowered his post-injury ERA to 2.78 and his season ERA now sits at 2.30 through eight starts.

"I expect to go out there and pitch well," Woodruff said. "Coming off the injury, it’s a weird deal where I expect to go out there and perform, but I’m trying to go into this and not have many expectations because I don’t have a full season to work with. I’m trying to out there and have fun. I’m trying to go pitch to pitch as much as I can. I’m trying to work inning to inning and see what happens.

"Thankfully, it’s going well so far."

BOX SCORE: Brewers 7, Pirates 3

That type is what Milwaukee has come to expect down the stretch from Woodruff, who simply seems to get better when the intensity picks up.

Woodruff now has a 2.29 ERA since 2018 during regular season games in the months of September and October. This isn't just some small sample size, either. Woodruff has now thrown 122 innings in those months over the past six seasons. He's struck out 157 batters and has a WHIP of .089.

The numbers say there might not be a better big-game pitcher in franchise history than Woodruff.

The burly right-hander can't pinpoint what, exactly, is the secret to his late-season sauce, but he sure enjoys taking the mound down the stretch.

The biggest games, I don’t know, I just like pitching in them," Woodruff said. "It’s fun. You feel like your back's against the wall when you go on road in the playoffs. That’s the most fun games to me. You just got you and your teammates, and everyone else is against you and that’s the best.

"I don’t know, I can’t really explain it. I just try to focus on each pitch and see where that takes me."

Contact-heavy inning swings the game in Brewers’ favor

While Woodruff shoved, the Brewers offense delivered a performance right in line with what they have been doing for an extended stretch.

Since the start of August, the Brewers average exactly seven runs per game in their wins. That number dips to 1.7 in losses.

Sure enough, aided by a six-run fifth inning to break the game open against the Pirates, when the game came to a close there were seven runs on the scoreboard once again.

The Brewers didn’t exactly scald the baseball on their way to their big inning, but they sure found plenty of green grass.

And as they’ve shown many times, especially of late, a little luck for this offense can go a long way as they have cut down on strikeouts.

After loading the bases with nobody out on three walks in the fourth but only scoring one run, the Brewers entered the fifth with a slim lead but were still being no-hit by Pirates starter Andre Jackson.

Sal Frelick, on his way to a much-needed bounceback game with two extra-base hits, walked to lead things off the sixth. Andruw Monasterio then recorded the Brewers’ first hit of the game, driving a pitch to the deepest part of the park for a run-scoring triple.

Brice Turang couldn’t have placed his swinging bunt any better than he did, putting it near the third base line about 30 feet from home plate for a single that scored Monasterio.

Tyrone Taylor followed with a bloop single to the Bermuda Triangle in right. Turang motored to third on the play and scored a batter later when Christian Yelich hit a sacrifice fly to deep left.

Leading, 4-0, Carlos Santana skied a fly ball to the wall in center that Pirates outfielder Jack Suwinski lost in the lights momentarily. By the time he tried to recover, it was too late and it fell for a run-scoring double.

Mark Canha capped off the scoring with a two-run single to left, extending his on-base streak to 17 games. Canha has driven in 16 runs during that period.

"(Jackson) struggled in the stretch throwing strikes, really," Counsell said. "That was important, really, just to get something going. We didn’t cash in big that first time in the fourth inning, but we got some balls to fall in the fifth and we made it a big inning."

The feast-or-famine nature of Milwaukee's offense, which averages a league-worst 2.4 runs in losses, made another appearance.

At least there have been plenty of feasts of late.

Brewers schedule coming up

Wednesday – Brewers at Pirates, 11:35 a.m. Milwaukee RHP Freddy Peralta (11-8, 3.85) vs. Pittsburgh TBA. TV: Bally Sports Wisconsin. Radio: AM-620.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brandon Woodruff dominates to lead Brewers past Pirates at PNC Park