Wood's gem goes for naught after 'pen falters

April 27th, 2017

SAN FRANCISCO -- With starting pitcher Alex Wood pitching a one-hitter over six innings and leaving with a three-run lead, what the Dodgers needed Wednesday night was a reliever like Alex Wood.
Instead, former Giants reliever and gave up the lead on home runs and gave up the game in the 10th inning on 's walk-off sacrifice fly for a 4-3 Giants win, the Dodgers' second loss in three games to their last-place rivals.
Wood, making his third start in place of the injured Rich Hill, lost his no-hit bid on ' single leading off the sixth inning. When he retired the side with a pitch count of 77 and a 3-0 lead, Wood was removed by manager Dave Roberts because it was his first six-inning start of the year. It meant the last four Dodgers starters had each pitched at least six innings.
"It's just one of those things where 75-80 pitches, his first time up six times, at that point we're up, 3-0, and we've got to close it out," said Roberts. "We've got to find a way to close that game out."
Wood -- who has been shuttled back and forth from the bullpen (5 1/3 scoreless innings in relief this season) to Hill's spot in the rotation -- said this was the first of three starts in which he felt like he had the routine of a starting pitcher. He struck out five and walked one.
"I thought tonight I would go longer than I had because I finally had a progression to make a legitimate start and didn't know I was on a pitch count until I got yanked," he said.
That's when, as Roberts said, the Dodgers had to find a way to close the game out, but they never even got to closer .
Romo allowed the first career homer to . Baez allowed the first home run in two years to , who was a Dodger for a day via a 2015 trade that brought the Dodgers Wood.
Until the Morse home run, Baez had allowed one hit in seven scoreless innings. But Romo preceded the homer to Arroyo with a single by former batterymate and has a 10.57 ERA with seven walks in 7 2/3 innings.
"I thought that was a good spot for him to have success," said Roberts. "Sergio is a guy we acquired to get big outs against right-handed hitters. He got behind in the count, 2-0, and left a slider over the plate. It's hard for any pitcher to pitch from behind."
Stripling pitched a scoreless ninth inning, but the Giants loaded the bases in the 10th with no outs on a single by , a walk to and a bunt defense that failed to get the runner at third.
Then came Pence vs. Stripling, 10 fastballs at least chest-high, Pence fouling off five of them until he finally lifted one that left fielder caught, but couldn't throw out Hernandez.
"I thought he was in swing mode, and I don't like to second-guess sequencing too much, but obviously Strip was going up in the zone and he saw a lot of fastballs in a row," said Roberts. "It's hard. He found a way to get it to the outfield."