The 23 year-old, left-handed pitcher, Alex Wood made his first start since May 4th on Wednesday night, and it was a beauty. The unorthodox left-hander pitched seven shutout innings allowing only three hits and one walk while striking out four batters on 79 pitches. He could have easily gone nine innings but it could be argued that manager Fredi Gonzalez wanted to ease the young lefty back into the rotation after spending over a month in the bullpen. Wood was only able to make a couple starts in the minor leagues to stretch his arm out due to the injury to Gavin Floyd.
Alex Wood had great command of all three of his pitches tonight. The pitch that gave Wood the upper hand against these young Astro hitters was his changeup. This was the pitch that plagued Wood while he was in the bullpen, but apparently he was able to figure something out while he made those starts in the minor leagues. Wood stayed aggressive in the zone early in the count, and this allowed Wood to get quick outs because of the over aggressive Astros lineup which in turn led to a low pitch count.
The other thing that helped Wood mow down the Astros lineup Wednesday night was the great defensive play by his teammates. Specifically, the barehanded play by Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons. Just look.
Wood’s counterpart on the mound Collin McHugh didn’t do too shabby himself. He pitched seven innings allowing three runs on three hits, two walks, while striking out nine batters. He was able to get ahead in the count early which set up his 12 to 6 curveball that ended up being devastating to every Braves hitter. Even though the Braves whiffed a ton tonight they were able to make McHugh work hard for every out as the game progressed. This led to a couple mistakes to Evan Gattis and Justin Upton.
Speaking of Evan Gattis and Justin Upton, they were really the only two guys to make hard contact against McHugh. Gattis went 2-4 with a pair of doubles; one of them came in the second inning on a first pitch fastball by McHugh. Gattis later scored on a sacrifice fly by Justin Upton after being moved over to 3rd base by Jason Heyward.
Justin Upton was the offensive hero tonight. Upton went 1-3 with three RBI’s, two of them came on an opposite field blast in the seventh inning off of McHugh. It was Upton’s second homerun in as many nights and both of them were no doubters. This is a sign that Justin Upton is getting hot. Also, it should be a warning to the National League.
The impressive thing about tonight’s win was the fundamental play by the Atlanta Braves offense. Yes, the homerun by Upton was impressive, but the Braves manufactured the other two runs playing “A, B, C” baseball. In the second inning Gattis was moved over to third base by Heyward and later scored on a sac-fly by Upton. In the eigth inning B.J. Upton led off with a double and then moved to third base on a balk by Astros pitcher Darin Downs. Upton ended up scoring on a ground out by Tommy La Stella.
Those are the little things the Braves offense needs to do to score more runs, which in turn will lead to more wins because as we know the Braves pitching staff is one of the best in the National League.
Mike Minor and the Braves go for the sweep tomorrow in Houston. They have to face young right hander Jarred Cosart who is 7-5 with a 3.78 ERA. Minor is 2-4 on the season with a 4.20 ERA, but don’t let those numbers fool you as Minor is coming off a tremendous outing against the Washington Nationals where he went two innings while surrendering only two runs and striking out 11.