Hot Bats Burn Travis Wood

The Reds lured former farm hand and teammate Travis Wood into a false sense of security then lit him up like kindling in a 7-3 win.

Wood pitched against his former mates last Saturday at Wrigley Field against the cagey veteran Bronson Arroyo.  Wood was like oak and left with a 2-1 lead.  Arroyo allowed two second inning runs then started the Reds' streak of 28 scoreless innings in the third.  Arroyo ended up the winner as the Reds beat the Chicago bullpen.

Luis Valbuena homered off Arroyo leading off the second inning.  The Reds converted an error charged to
Wood into the tying run.  Perhaps it should have been firstbaseman Anthony Rizzo who should have been charged with the error as he rushed the throw to Wood on a ground ball by Todd Frazier. Rizzo deflected rather than field it cleanly.

The Cubs got two runs in the fourth inning.  Starlin Castro hit the second of his singles to open the inning.  Castro went to third as  Brett Jackson singled. Castro scored on a wild pitch.  After a walk to Steve Clevenger, Wood himself singled home Jackson.

The Reds answered quickly.  Ryan Ludwick hit his 23rd home run on the first pitch of the botton half of the frame.  Jay Bruce was hit by a pitch.  Todd Frazier belted his 16th home run to give the Reds a lead that Arroyo held onto as the Reds built a cushion.


 "I couldn't really tell you what was going on," Frazier said. "He throws that cutter a lot. I was sitting on it. That was a big five-run inning for us."

 "It didn't look good for a while, but we answered back when they scored," Baker said. "We were on (Wood) pretty good in that inning."


Cubs' manager Dale Sveum thought Wood spent his good karma last Saturday.

"Wood probably spent everything in his last outing," Sveum said. "He didn't have his velocity.  Everything was flat.  You always want to do well against your former team.  He was in a gun fight with a knife."

Wood didn't go that far.  He was cruising like he did last week but either Ludwick's blast or hitting Bruce seemed to wake up the Reds.

"The doors fell off," Wood said. "Ludwick hit a home run on the first pitch.  I wasn't too worried about that but then I hit Bruce and Frazier got me.  It was downhill from there.  I played with most of those guys.  They're good hitters.

Scott Rolen singled but Ryan Hanigan hit into a double play.  Then the Reds began a second rally in the inning. Arroyo and Zack Cozart hit back-to-back doubles.  Drew Stubbs tripled for his second hit.  Bruce finished off Wood with his 25th home run, extending his hitting streak to five games with at least one extra base hit in each and a home run in four of the five.

"That pitch just got away from him," Bruce said of the pitch that hit him.  "If I were him, I try to pitch me inside too.  He just left a pitch out over the plate that I could handle."

Bruce missed Wood last week as Baker gave the rightfielder two games off to collect himself in the midst of a slump.  It worked.

Bruce is hitting .450 in the five games since with four home runs and eight RBI.

"It was more of a mental break than a physical one," Bruce said.  "Dusty is pretty good at noticing things and giving you a day off at the right time."

Aroldis Chapman, who hasn't pitched on the homestand, pitched the ninth in a non-save situation.  Chapman needed the inning because he hadn't pitched in four days..  The novelty of it is three ground balls did it.  It was a rare non-strikeout appearance.

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