Coming off a start against the Atlanta Braves in which his fastball velocity was down roughly three miles per hour than usual, Alex Wood admitted to battling some fatigue. He said it was an issue that set in during the previous outing but didn’t believe there was reason for concern.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Wood remained on track for his next turn in the rotation. The left-hander threw a bullpen session at Citi Field to iron out mechanics aimed at improving velocity.
Wood was pleased with his work and expressed confidence his start against the Arizona Diamondbacks would yield positive results. After throwing six innings and earning his 14th win of the season, Wood highlighted his improvement, via Jarrid Denney and Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“I thought my stuff was back to where I wanted it to be,” said Wood, 6-0 on the road. “Usually not that easy of a fix, but it was an easy fix this time and life came back to the fastball. I was getting 2 or 3 inches closed off in my hips and not reaching full potential, and we opened it a little bit and the life came back and my stuff was better.”
Wood held the Diamondbacks scoreless until Paul Goldschmidt hit a solo home run with one out in the fourth inning. Prior to that point he had allowed just one hit and issued one walk.
The Diamondbacks struck again in the sixth, as an A.J. Pollock double was cashed in by J.D. Martinez on a two-out RBI single. The hit gave the Diamondbacks a 2-1 lead that Zack Greinke was unable to protect in the seventh inning.
The start was Wood’s 13th this season in which he allowed two earned runs or fewer.
