With the comfort of knowing he’s firmly entrenched in the Los Angeles Dodgers starting rotation as opposed to competing for the final spot, Alex Wood has been able to use this spring to refine his delivery.
Despite the fact that Wood was coming off an All-Star season, the first such campaign of his career, the 27-year-old made a decision during the winter to exclusively pitch out of the stretch. Wood pushed in that direction by watching Yu Darvish and Stephen Strasburg pitch.
He’s largely downplayed the change when the conversation has suggested it’s one that’s significant, but Wood is nonetheless working to perfect his delivery.
Following his first start of the spring, Wood said he was focused on establishing his rhythm and tempo. Saturday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks presented an opportunity to do as much.
After his second start, Wood said he felt as though progress was made, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“I’ve been slow and deliberate because of my mechanical work in the offseason and in camp, so I tried to speed my tempo up to solidify my landing leg, and felt a lot better today,” said Wood. “It’s coming. Progress each time. Feel like I made a lot of progress today.”
Wood’s afternoon didn’t begin on a positive note as he gave up a scorching leadoff triple to Rey Fuentes. But he rebounded to strike out the next three batters faced to strand Fuentes.
Then after the Dodgers jumped out to a 6-0 lead, Wood’s first pitch of the second inning was ambushed by Christian Walker for a solo home run. Wood was removed after walking Fuentes with one out in the third inning.
He improved to 2-0 this spring but has allowed four runs in 3.1 innings pitched (10.80 ERA), pitched to a 2.10 WHIP and allowed opponents to bat .308. Of course, per usual, the Dodgers and Wood are hardly concerned with Spring Training results.
