Wood in need of a save

The Cubs pitcher on the monitor hanging in the narrow Wrigley Field concourse looked familiar.

Hey, isn't that Kerry Wood?

Yes, it is. He's striking out another batter among the 20 he recorded in a game in this same ballpark 11 years ago.

How long ago was that from Saturday afternoon, how many lifetimes, how many galaxies?

Cub fans still are crazy for Wood after all these years even though he is almost unrecognizable now in a Cleveland Indians uniform.

"You have mixed emotions," Lou Piniella said.

The Cubs manager and his players appreciate what Wood meant to the franchise and community during his time here.

Even those who didn't share the clubhouse with him are aware of how persistently Wood tried to overcome countless injuries that stubbed his potential.

Yet baseball is a sport and the idea is to beat the other guy without emotion or compassion entering into the equation.

For the second straight day, the Cubs did just that to Wood in a 13-inning, 6-5 victory over the Indians.

Wood faced the media after blowing a save Friday. He couldn't bear to after blowing another one Saturday.

Judging by Wood's performance during the first two games of this three-game series, he left both his heart and control in Chicago last winter.

Cubs general manager Jim Hendry let Wood down as gently as he could while not offering him a contract. The Indians lifted him back up with a two-year, $20 million deal.

This weekend Hendry looks like a genius - at least on this decision - and the Indians look like dummies.

None of that matters. Wood has time to win over Cleveland as he did Chicago, but he'll have to do it while remaining a Cub in Indians colors.

Wood has reasons for not pitching well right now, or are they excuses? Anyway, the Indians are playing so poorly that they have trouble getting the ball to their closer.

"He hasn't had a ton of opportunities," Cubs counterpart Kevin Gregg said. "It's hard to stay sharp in those situations."

So the Cubs took advantage of Wood's, er, dullness.

Guys like Andres Blanco and Aaron Miles touched him for hits. Then with rookie Jake Fox at bat, the winning run scored on Wood's wild pitch.

The wild one was the most obvious example of not being sharp, but the light-hitting Blanco's game-tying hit came after Wood fell behind 2-0 in the count.

"It's difficult," Gregg said. "You can try to (simulate) save opportunities but it isn't the same. You can feel for him."

The Cubs prefer feeling the joy of another last-at-bat victory. They couldn't afford to lose a game they needed to a team that's struggling.

"Woody has done a lot of nice things here," Piniella said, "but our job is to go out and win a baseball game against whoever is out there."

Wood was out there Saturday, but he sure wasn't that precocious kid who struck out 20 Houston batters in May of '98.

He might be older and wiser, but Wood was just another pitcher the Cubs had to beat.

So for the second straight day the hand that fed Kerry Wood for so many years jumped up and bit him.

mimrem@dailyherald.com