The Los Angeles Dodgers saw their three-game winning streak come to an end on Labor Day in a disappointing 4-2 loss to the New York Mets at Dodger Stadium.
The club was tasked with solving Jacob deGrom, who drove in the same amount of runs at the plate as runs he allowed on the mound over six solid innings. He opposed Alex Wood in what ultimately turned out to be a pitchers’ duel for much of the night.
Wood yielded only five hits and one run with three strikeouts, but managed to log just five innings of work due to a high pitch count. Wood often ran into deep counts, which attributed to him throwing 87 pitches (56 strikes) in the shortened outing.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts believes Wood was less effective in his start on Monday due to an increased workload in his previous outing against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park, via SportsNet LA:
“I think the start in Texas, we pushed him a little bit there. Think it was regular rest this time here, so I think he might of felt a little bit of that as far as on the recovery side. So you’re talking about a lot more balls in play. Not necessarily a lot of hard contact, but with Alex you’re used to seeing a lot more swing and miss. It wasn’t there tonight. But for him to give five innings and give up one run, I still thought it was a nice job.”
As Roberts notes, Wood entered Monday’s start only five days removed from a seven-inning performance in the finale of a two-game Interleague series with the Rangers.
It marked only the third time all season Wood exceeded the seven-inning threshold, and the first time he reached it since June 27 against the Chicago Cubs.
While Wood generated less swings and misses, he nevertheless still matched deGrom for much of his outing and kept the Dodgers in the game against one of the National League’s best pitchers.
