This season has been much more difficult for Los Angeles Dodgers starter Alex Wood compared to the 2017 campaign, when he started off 11-0 en route to his first career All-Star appearance.
Wood even went as far to say that a recent string of three straight poor starts was the toughest stretch of his career. But the left-hander looks to be headed in the right direction.
Wood had a strong performance last week against the San Francisco Giants and then another solid start in Friday night’s win over the New York Mets.
After the game, Wood said that he feels like he is trending upward and believes that rough stretch is behind him, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“The last two [starts] I’ve made steps forward,” said Wood. “The previous three-start stretch, I’ve never had a stretch like that my whole career. Three in a row like I had was something I’ve never dealt with. You start thinking, ‘What do I do? Where do I go? What do I throw?’ — the list goes on and on. To see light at the end of the tunnel, you feel good about it.”
Wood gave up six hits and two runs while striking out seven and walking one in six innings of work. Both runs came on a two-run shot off the bat of Jose Bautista in the sixth inning.
Overall in 15 starts this season, Wood is 3-5 with a 4.13 ERA and 1.18 WHIP with 75 strikeouts and 16 walks in 80.2 innings.
Through that rough stretch, it was clear that Wood was not 100 percent healthy, although he would never admit it. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has given him some extra days off between starts though, so it looks like he is healthy right now and looking like the 2017 version of himself.
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