Pitching in Clayton Kershaw’s shadow, Dodgers’ Alex Wood shines,
Alex Wood doesn’t have a $215 million contract or a decadelong track record of excellence, nor does he possess a plane ticket to Miami this weekend.
At this moment, however, there’s little else separating Wood from fellow Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander and three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw.
One of baseball’s sneaky success stories this year, Wood put the finishing touches on a stunning first-half résumé with seven scoreless innings in a 1-0 victory against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday. The rampaging Dodgers, who have won 22 of 26 games, were looking to complete a three-game sweep of the D’backs on Thursday that would push their National League West lead to 5 1⁄2 games.
They are a juggernaut, a byproduct of big spending and a flurry of moves that might have initially looked minor but eventually paid off in a huge way.
That brings us to Wood. He was easily overlooked in a threeteam, 13-player trade that brought him from the Atlanta Braves to Los Angeles in July 2015. He didn’t fully establish himself in the Dodgers rotation until this season, thanks in large part to a gaggle of injuries. But look at him now:
At 10-0 with a 1.67 ERA, Wood, according to Elias Sports Bureau, joins the New York Yankees’ Ron Guidry as the lone lefthanders in the last 100 years to start a season 10-0 with an ERA of less than 2.
He’s the first Dodgers starter to begin the season 10-0 since Don Newcombe in 1955, the year the franchise won its only championship in Brooklyn.
With a 0.89 WHIP (walks and hits per inning) and a 2.04 Fielding Independent Pitching mark, Wood matches or exceeds Kershaw (0.89 WHIP/3.11 FIP) in two key peripheral stats.
OK. We’ll stop there with the Kershaw comparisons. But know that if Wood had 5 1⁄3 more innings pitched, he’d lead the NL in ERA. As it stands, he is tied for second in wins but just misses qualifying for the ERA lead, a victim of a possibly marginal trip to the disabled list this season.
Perhaps that’s why Wood didn’t rate higher in player voting when the All-Star ballot came around.
There’s a natural path to Miami and the All-Star Game for Wood; Kershaw pitches Sunday, so he must be replaced on the active roster. “I would be very honored if that happened, very humbled,” Wood said.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he was “holding out hope” and that there’s “still an opportunity,” which makes you wonder if there’s another overlooked player who ranked higher on the player ballot who will get the nod instead.
Either way, just being in the conversation is a huge boost for a pitcher who harnessed an excellent breaking ball and commanded his fastball sufficiently enough to nearly double his strikeout-towalk ratio — from 2.36 in 2015 to 4.40 this year.
On the mound, Wood has been in complete control. About the only thing he doesn’t control is where he’ll be flying come Sunday afternoon.