Brewers' bats silenced by ageless Bartolo Colón

It was a pitching matchup of extremes on Wednesday night at Miller Park.

On one side you had 24-year-old rookie Brandon Woodruff, a highly touted prospect, making his second career start for the Milwaukee Brewers. On the other was 44-year-old Bartolo Colón, making his 527th career start for the Minnesota Twins.

In the end, it really was no contest.

Woodruff pitched well, limiting the Twins to three hits, two runs and three walks with two strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings. But with no offense behind him – a continuing theme for Brewers starters since the all-star break – Woodruff didn't have a chance against Colón.

The right-hander scattered five singles and a walk with five strikeouts over seven innings, and two relievers combined to not allow a baserunner the rest of the way as the Twins beat the Brewers for the third straight night, 4-0.

 Ryan Braun and Orlando Arcia each managed to single twice against Colón. Throw in an Eric Sogard walk and single and that was it against the ageless one, who was staked to a 2-0 lead after three innings and never threatened afterward.

"I thought he did a nice job changing speeds," said manager Craig Counsell. "He did that pretty effectively tonight, certainly more so than the first time we faced him (when he was pitching for Atlanta).

"It was a quiet night for us. There wasn't much happening, for sure. We couldn't get anything going of any substance. He kept us off-balance enough that we weren't able to string together any good at-bats."

Colón might be nearing the end based on his season numbers coming in  – 2-8 with an 8.14 ERA – but he was 1-1 with a 5.18 ERA in four starts since being signed by the Twins. And he'd pitched a complete game against Texas in his previous start.

The Brewers got baserunners on against him in each of the first four innings but did nothing with them – a common theme for more than three weeks now.

BOX SCORE:Twins 4, Brewers 0

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Colón clamped down and allowed just one baserunner over his final three innings, and by then Minnesota had doubled its lead to 4-0 against Woodruff and Jacob Barnes.

"A lot of experience, you know?" said Arcia through translator Carlos Brizuela in summarizing why Colón is still competing at 44 – nearly twice his age.

"He’s been able to dominate with his pitches. He knows what he has. He understands what he’s good at. And he’s experienced all of it. He’s been able to pitch well and he keeps going at it, even at his age."

Woodruff (1-1), who battled through six scoreless innings to win his major-league debut last Friday at Tampa Bay, pitched well enough to have deserved a better fate.

A one-out walk came back to bite him in the second, then the red-hot Brian Dozier homered in the third to make it 2-0. He kept the deficit there the rest of his night, eventually being pulled an out shy of registering his second quality start in as many outings.

"Tonight I didn’t have my best stuff," he said. "I think it was a night where I had to battle, and just make some pitches when I had to. Just try to give the team a good chance to win and go as deep as I could."

Barnes finished out the sixth, but then gave up two more in the seventh and the Brewers were essentially done.

"I thought Brandon did a nice job," Counsell said. "He fell behind some hitters more than he did in Tampa. He still made pitches, got himself back into some counts and did a nice job.

"I thought he got a little tired at the end there so we went to Jacob to get out of the inning, but he did a nice job. Gave up three hits. Fell behind some hitters. But the fastball played again.

"He was able to throw it in some tough counts and still get results."

The gap of 525 games between Woodruff and Colón was the largest between a Brewers starter and his opponent since Braden Looper faced off against the Phillies' Kyle Kendrick on Sept. 26, 2009.

Woodruff tipped his hat to his counterpart, who's playing for his 10th major-league team in his 20th season.

"Man, it’s awesome," he said of facing Colón. "It was fun getting to face him in the box, too. He doesn’t miss many spots, that’s for sure. He’s dotting it up. It was fun being able to pitch against him.

"At this level, it’s not all about throwing hard. It’s about learning how to pitch and putting it in good spots, because hitting’s hard enough. He’s been doing it for a while, so he definitely knows how to pitch."

It feels like any pitcher can handle the Brewers these days.

They were shut out for the fourth time this season, but it might be surprising that it was the first time since June 13 they'd failed to tally even a run considering the length and depth of this current offensive drought.

"There's frustration of course," said Counsell, whose team is just 1 1/2 games out of the lead in the Central Division but now tied with the St. Louis Cardinals for second place. "When you struggle to score runs, you get frustrated. It's OK. It's natural. You compete the next day. There are important at-bats the next day so you have to step up.

"We have to score more runs. Is it frustrating not scoring runs? Of course it is. After you lose a game, 4-0, you're frustrated as a hitter, for sure, but you come back tomorrow.

"There's a lot of opportunity in front of us. When we wake up tomorrow, that's how you have to see it."