LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Travis Wood of Bryant allowed a two-run homer in the first inning but little else on Sunday on his way to his third win of the season for the Louisville Bats, the AAA farm club of the Cincinnati Reds.
Wood also contributed a double in three at-bats and scored twice to help his team surge to a 9-6 win over the Gwinnett Braves in International League play.[more]
Now 3-4 on the season, Wood allowed three runs on four hits without a walk in six innings. He struck out three. All three runs came via homers. The first one was a two-run shot by Mitch Jones with two down in the bottom of the opening frame. The second was a solo shot to open the fourth by Barbaro Canizares.
In between, Wood set down seven consecutive batters and his teammates took the lead with a run in the second and four in the third. The latter uprising included Wood’s double on a liner to left following Chris Denove’s inning-opening single.
After Canizares homered in the top of the fourth, Wood got Jones back with a strikeout. With two down, former Major Leaguer Joe Thurston was hit by a pitch and Alex Romero singled but, Wood forced the Braves to strand them when he got the final out on Clint Sammons’ fly to right.
That started another stretch in which Wood set down seven in a row to finish his day’s work on the mound. He did, however, bat once more in the bottom of the sixth. Denove walked and, attempting to sacrifice, Wood hit into a force play. He made it to second when Chris Burke was hit by a pitch then scored on a single by Zack Cozart, putting the Bats ahead 9-3.
Gwinnett rallied for three in the top of the ninth before Jesus Delgado, the fifth Louisiville pitcher, got the final two outs for his first save of the season.
Wood, who has won three of his last five starts, now has a 4.19 earned run average. In 62 1/3 innings, he’s allowed 57 hits including nine homers, 33 runs, 29 earned, walked 17 and fanned 60. Opponents are batting .244 against him.
Against Gwinnett, he threw 98 pitches, 69 of them for strikes.
