In case you missed it, Bryant’s Travis Wood of the Cincinnati Reds was optioned to[more] Triple-A Louisville after a June 20 start against the New York Yankees and has been pitching for the Bats ever since.
After a solid half year with the Reds in 2010, Wood was having an up-and-down campaign in 2011. He’d posted a 5-5 record with an earned run average of 5.11 in 16 starts covering 93 1/3 innings. He’d allowed 106 hits and 10 home runs with 34 walks and 65 strikeouts.
It was almost as if the lefty was on every other game or so. Though he had absorbed a loss to the Yankees on June 20, along four earned runs in seven innings, he was coming off a win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in which he allowed just one earned run in six innings.
There is speculation that Wood will return to the Reds when rosters are expanded on Sept. 1.
In the meantime, he has gone 2-1 with a 3.35 ERA at Louisville, starting seven games. He’s allowed 37 hits and 13 walks while striking out 33 in 40 1/3 innings. His most recent effort was Saturday, July 30, when he picked up a win over Pawtucket PawSox (Boston Red Sox), allowing just two runs on three hits over five innings in a 3-2 win for the Bats.
Meanwhile, Ben Wells, in his first year of professional baseball, continues to pitch for the Class A short-season Northwest League team in the Chicago Cubs’ organization, the Boise Hawks.
Wells has pitched in nine games, eight of them starts including his latest on Thursday, July 28, against the Everett AquaSox. So far this season, he is 2-2 with a 4.54 ERA. Over 41 2/3 innings, he’s allowed 44 hits and 14 walks while striking out 30.
In that start against Everett, which the Hawks lost 5-4 in 10 innings, Wells turned in his longest stint on the mound at 5 1/3 innings. He allowed three earned runs on five hits, walked one and struck out six.
