LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After having his regular start in the rotation moved back from Thursday, Aug. 27, to Saturday, Aug. 29, Bryant’s Travis Wood absorbed his second loss in seven starts for the Class AAA Louisville Bats (Cincinnati Reds), 5-3, to the Columbus Clippers (New York Yankees).
The loss snapped a streak of four winning decisions in a row for Wood, now 4-2 at Louisville and 13-5 overall this season.[more]
In six innings, he surrendered four earned runs on nine hits with one walk and three strikeouts, boosting his earned run average to 3.30.
Columbus scored two runs in the first and two more in the third then Wood settled down and shut them out over his last three innings of work. The lone walk came to the very first batter of the game. Consecutive singles followed, loading the bases. The lefty induced a doubleplay ball on which the first run scored then Major League veteran Tony Graffanino singled in the second run.
A fly to right ended the inning and Wood retired the side in order in the second, recording his first strikeout.
Back at the top of the order in the third, Wood struck out the lead-off batter but former Major Leaguer Josh Barfield singled for the second time as did Jordan Brown. Barfield went to third, drawing a throw that allowed Brown to take second. Wes Hodges singled to drive in both runners, making it 4-0.
Graffanino lined out to right and, after another single, Wood ended the inning with a strikeout.
In the fourth, a triple started the inning but Wood forced the Clippers to strand the runner getting a groundout to third, a pop to third and a fly to center to keep it 4-0.
Including those three outs, Wood finished his work for the night by retiring nine of the last 10 batters he faced. The only baserunner came on a one-out single in the sixth.
The Bats trimmed a run off the lead in the fifth and another in the sixth to cut it to 4-2 but Columbus added a run in the seventh. A Louisville rally in the ninth netted just one run but the game ended with the potential tying runs on base and winning run at the plate.
Despite the loss, Louisville clinched the championship of the International West Division. The Bats are 78-56 on the season and have a 10 ½ game lead of Indianapolis with 10 games left in the season. The playoffs begin Sept. 9.
Wood, a former star for the Bryant Hornets and Bryant Black Sox, is the son of Jay and Dena Wood. He was selected in the second round of the June 2005 Major League draft.
