For Cubs’ Wood, it all unravels fast
Here’s how quickly things can change in a baseball game: The Cubs’ Travis Wood gave up no hits through the first three innings Tuesday night against the Miami Marlins.
He had 5 strikeouts in that time and looked to be picking up right where he left off before the all-star break.
Then, boom, a 2-run homer by Omar Infante in the fourth inning, and, quadruple-boom, as Carlos Lee hit a grand slam in the fifth, and the Marlins held on for a 9-5 victory at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs had their four-game winning streak snapped as they fell to 36-53.
“He was pretty sharp early, mixing both sides of the plate, like we talked about earlier,” Cubs manager Dale Sveum said. “Carlos had a basehit on a changeup, and they bounced one by (shortstop Starlin) Castro there, and the home run made it 3.
“It seemed like, next inning, he didn’t come out with much command, couldn’t keep the ball down. Everything was up. He didn’t use a whole lot of his off-speed stuff or pitch inside, pitch to both sides of the plate tonight.
“He pitched away a lot. I think he maybe threw only 10 off-speed pitches of the (93). It just kind of got out of rhythm and out of whack there.”
Tuesday night’s stinker notwithstanding, Wood has been a pleasant surprise for the Cubs. Obtained from the Cincinnati Reds for dependable reliever Sean Marshall last Christmas, Wood endured a poor spring training and failed to make the club out of camp.
He did a couple of stints at Class AAA Iowa before coming back up for good in late May. After losing his first 3 decisions as a Cub, Wood reeled off 4 straight victories.
He looked at least part of the way to 5 straight Tuesday.
“We started off looking good, cruising, kind of,” said Wood, whose ERA rose from 3.05 to 3.92. “Things just kind of hit the fan. It happened quick, with the homer in the fourth, and Lee got me for a grand slam in the fifth.”
Over the weekend, Sveum talked about how Wood has been pitching differently this season and how that was a key to his recent success.
“He’s using both sides of the plate now,” Sveum elaborated Tuesday. “He never knew how to use his arm side of the plate.
“Now he’s using his two-seamer there and his back door and his cutter. So it used to be basically one area with his hard stuff, middle in to right-handed hitters.
“Now he’s learned how to back door his cutter to open up the whole inside of the plate. His command out there, it didn’t take him very long to really grasp it.
“He never in his wildest dreams thought he could throw a backdoor cutter and use that side of the plate, and obviously it’s opened up a whole new world for him, to get hitters leaning out there.”
So given that, Wood said he was ready to throw this one out.
“You learn something from each start,” he said. “You’ve just got to get back at it and work hard these next four days and try to forget about and take it back to St. Louis.”
bmiles@dailyherald.com