Giants’ Wood, a new dad, aces first start in front of son
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. » At 5:43 a.m. on Sept. 21, Asa Francisco Wood was born. On Saturday afternoon, he watched his dad pitch for the first time.
“I needed to do good,” Alex Wood said a short while later, “because it was my son’s first game today.”
Mission accomplished: the new dad’s first start of the spring couldn’t have gone much better.
“He wasn’t going to be allowed back if I did bad,” Wood joked.
Wood breezed through his two scheduled innings in the Giants’ exhibition against the D-backs. He didn’t allow a base runner
and struck out all but one of the six batters he faced. He put away one hitter with his fastball, another with his changeup and the remaining three with his slider.
And if you thought Wood already worked fast, just wait until you see him with the pitch clock.
“I felt like I was working too fast in the first inning,” Wood said.
Wood, who worked at the 25th-fastest pace in the majors last year (one of five Giants in the top 25), was frequently throwing his pitches with upward of 10 seconds left on the clock. While adjusting to the quicker pace was no issue, he said this spring will be all about tuning his internal clock.
Once that happens, Wood seems like a prime candidate to use the clock to his advantage.
Look no further for an example than in Max Scherzer’s recent start. A batter called time — his one timeout for the at-bat — and when he stepped back in the box, Scherzer was waiting on the mound, ready to fire the next pitch as soon as it was allowed. No surprise, it sailed through a feeble swing.
The incident prompted MLB to reiterate its rules about quick-pitching, which haven’t changed, but also prompted some debate among Giants.
“Come on, you shouldn’t be able to do that,” Wood said.
Whereas Kapler said, “I didn’t see that as a quickpitch. A quick-pitch to me is when a pitcher is trying to catch you when you’re not looking. But he waited until the hitter looked up and just used the clock to his advantage.”
However, Wood added, “I think there’s still ways to mess with guys.”
It’s just going to take some adjusting this spring before he is comfortable experimenting.