Wednesday night was one to forget at Dodger Stadium, as the Los Angeles Dodgers suffered a blowout loss to the Oakland Athletics in which they gave up 16 runs and 21 hits one game after shutting them out.
Alex Wood got the start on the mound, one day later that initially planned, and he did not look like his usual self. Wood allowed seven hits and seven earned runs in 3.2 innings of work, while striking out five without allowing a walk.
It was a second consecutive outing in which the 2017 All-Star did not necessarily pitch to expectations. Wood didn’t make any excuses for his start and admitted he was simply poor all the way around, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“It was just bad,” Wood said in a self-assessment that could have been a game recap. “It was just one of those days where it was just really bad – everything start to finish, top to bottom.”
Wood was previously scheduled to start the series opener but missed a bullpen session due to a bout with food poisoning and therefore swapped days with Hyun-Jin Ryu.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Wood wasn’t fully recovered, but the 27-year-old refused to use that as an excuse:
“I just can’t consider that,” he said. “It’s one of those things where you make 30-plus starts a year. You have things pop up. It was one of those things where I felt good enough to go so I went.”
The bullpen was equally as bad as Wood, if not worse, giving up 14 hits and nine runs in 5.1 innings, and Chase Utley had what ultimately proved to be a costly error. So blame for the loss doesn’t fall solely on Wood’s shoulders.
It is a game that everyone will likely want to forget though, which will be tough to do considering the Dodgers have the day off on Thursday. They then welcome the Arizona Diamondbacks, who just swept them at Chase Field last week, to town for a three-game weekend series.
