advertisement

Cubs' Wood finally gets win over Reds

It's probably cold comfort to the Cubs, but they've won as many games as they did all last season.

Travis Wood and the bullpen shut out the Cincinnati Reds 2-0 on Monday night at the Great American Ball Park. The victory gave the Cubs a record of 61-88. Last year, under the new baseball management team, the Cubs finished 61-101.

Wood, who came to the Cubs from the Reds in a December 2011 trade for reliever Sean Marshall, tossed 7 shutout innings to beat his former team for the first time after going 0-4 against the Reds.

The Cubs got homers from Luis Valbuena (No. 11) and Ryan Sweeney (No. 6). Sweeney is part of an outfield rotation with Junior Lake and Brian Bogusevic, and Sweeney is making a good case for some sort of role next season.

In addition to hitting well, he has good speed and plays a solid center field.

“I think he's one guy that has put himself in a situation where the defense that he showed us in center field, the ability to go back on balls, the baseball player he is,” manager Dale Sveum said over the weekend at Wrigley Field. “He's pretty savvy. He knows what's going on.

“Obviously a left-handed bat, quality at-bats, the ability to hit home runs. He's a guy if you give him 500-700 plate appearances that he hasn't ever got before, I think you can project that out to be a pretty good year. He competes in the batter's box.

“He's got an ability in center field to make things look easy. You don't want to put anybody in a Jim Edmonds category or anything like that, but he kind of makes it look easy, like Jim Edmonds did without a great deal of speed.”

Cubs have a winner:The Cubs' Class A Daytona affiliate won the Florida State League championship with a 4-0 victory over Charlotte.Starting pitcher C.J. Edwards and reliever Ryan Searle combined on a 1-hitter, with Edwards going 5 innings and giving up the hit. Dan Vogelbach, who started the season with the Kane County Cougars, went 3-for-4, with an RBI single.#8220;This is the best feeling in the world,#8221; Vogelbach tweeted. #8220;Champions with the best team (and) boys I could ask for.#8221;Another one for Baker:Right-hander Scott Baker, who pitched 5 shutout innings in his season debut Sunday, will make another start, Sveum told reporters Monday. Baker underwent Tommy John surgery in April 2012 while with the Minnesota Twins.#8220;He's definitely going to start again,#8221; Sveum said. #8220;We were kind of just recently figuring it out, and tomorrow we'll probably have a better idea. But he'll definitely start in probably the next five, six days.#8221;bmiles@dailyherald.com

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.