The Milwaukee Brewers closed out their three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks in dominant fashion on Thursday with a 13-1 win, and catcher William Contreras was a big reason for their offensive surge.

Contreras went 4-for-4 at the plate with four RBIs and was a triple short of reaching the cycle. He was also behind the plate for starter Brandon Woodruff , whose outing ended much sooner than expected.

Woodruff had been having a good season up to Thursday, but in his sixth start, his pitches were coming across flat and lacking in velocity.

Woodruff was able to log two strikeouts in the first inning after giving up a leadoff walk, but his fastball was failing to reach 87 mph when it had averaged 92.5 mph on it up to that point. His lack of velocity compelled manager Pat Murphy to pull him from the game early and lean on the bullpen.

Between Woodruff and the bullpen, Contreras was the backstop for six pitchers on Thursday. After the game, he talked about what he saw from Woodruff and his level of concern for him.

"I don't know what's going on with him," Contreras told the media via his translator. "I don't know what's going on with him right now. But I respect him because he did his best. Even though he didn't feel good, he never wanted to leave the game. And that deserves a lot of respect.

"That being said, he went out there to compete," Contreras added. "And he went out there with what he did have. And for that, I think he deserves a ton of respect. He gets a ton of respect on my part for that."

During warmups in the bullpen, Contreras could tell something was off.

"Yeah, I think I had a feeling there in the bullpen," Contreras said. "Usually whenever he says he's got two more, he'll let it eat a little bit more. Those two, I knew there was something a little bit down. But again, like I said, a ton of respect for him for going out there and never backing down.

"I think it's a great learning lesson for the younger guys in the room to never back down and to go out there and compete and just be ready for the moment," he added. "I think it's a good experience for those guys to learn from that experience."

Contreras also credited Woodruff's ability to get out of the first inning even though his stuff was falling flat.

"Yeah. He's a command pitcher," Contreras said. "This is a guy that knows where he's putting the ball, whether he's healthy or whether he's not so healthy. Again, tremendous credit for him to go out there and compete.

"It's the 'Big Woo’ that we all know that regardless of what he has, he's going to go out there and pitch," he added.

Contreras also touched on his day at the plate, which included a home run, and how it was a testament to the work he has put in.

"Same thing that I've been working on since the beginning of the season," he said. "Just been working hard to get that hard contact. Like you said, some of this hard contact just hasn't left the yard. Today it was able to.

"Just going to keep on working hard," Contreras added. "Keep on working to do whatever I can to help the team win and just to be as consistent as possible."

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