Wild Horse spurs Dodgers to 80th win

August 10th, 2017

PHOENIX -- and (the latter to be known as "Wild Horse" on Players Weekend) drove in runs with two out in the seventh inning against former teammate Zack Greinke, and Alex Wood ran his record to 14-1 as the Dodgers rallied Wednesday night for a 3-2 win over the D-backs at Chase Field. Los Angeles (80-33) is the sixth team since 1913 to hit the 80-win mark in its first 113 games.
Wood, who complained of fatigue in his last start when his velocity dropped, made a mechanical adjustment during a Sunday bullpen session, and his velocity returned for much of his six innings.
"I thought my stuff was back to where I wanted it to be," said Wood, 6-0 on the road. "Usually not that easy of a fix, but it was an easy fix this time and life came back to the fastball. I was getting 2 or 3 inches closed off in my hips and not reaching full potential, and we opened it a little bit and the life came back and my stuff was better."

Pederson's two-out double cashed in a leadoff double by rookie sensation , who earlier slugged his 33rd home run. Puig followed by punching a single to right field that scored Pederson and chased Greinke, who suffered his first loss at home this year after a franchise record 10 consecutive home wins and is 13-5 overall.
• Dodgers on top thanks to bottom of order
"The pitch to Joc was the worst one," said Greinke, whose D-backs fell a half-game behind Colorado for the first National League Wild Card berth as the Rockies won Wednesday. "He did what he was supposed to do with it. It was a bad pitch and he hit it hard, so I made a big mistake there."

Bellinger, who will wear the nickname "Codylove" on the back of his jersey for Players Weekend, homered to lead off the second inning for the Dodgers, then tied it with a Statcast™-projected 443-foot blast off the batter's eye in center field with one out in the fourth inning. Arizona took the lead in the sixth inning on a one-out ground-rule double by A.J. Pollock and a two-out RBI single by J.D. Martinez.

Greinke went 6 2/3 innings and struck out eight while allowing three runs and walking four.
"I thought Zack threw the ball very, very well," Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. "He got a number of early-count outs that allowed him to work deep into the game and he told me he felt great and he wanted to go out there and finish [the seventh] inning. Unfortunately it didn't happen."
Wood was charged with two runs on six hits in six innings with four strikeouts and one walk. He joined and as the only pitchers to remain unbeaten on the road this season (minimum of eight starts). He joined teammate and Chris Sale as the only pitchers in MLB with at least 14 victories.
"That's more a testament to the guys on the team," said Wood. "Literally, a different guy every night."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Friendly (?) rivalry: Greinke and Puig, who have a history, had a game within a game after Puig led off the third inning with a walk. With one out and Chris Taylor up, Greinke attempted seven pickoffs. Although Puig, aka "WIld Horse," was safe each time, Greinke's attention had its secondary intent of cutting into Puig's lead and he was eventually thrown out by catcher Jeff Mathis trying to steal second base while Taylor struck out for an inning-ending double-play. was on deck.

Nice hold:Josh Fields began warming up with the Dodgers trailing by a run in the seventh, but by the time he entered the game he had a one-run lead, which he protected by pitching a scoreless seventh and eighth innings to set up 's 29th save.

QUOTABLE
"He was the Alex we've seen all year." -- Roberts, on Wood
SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
and Bellinger are the first pair each with at least 33 home runs in their rookie season since Walt Dropo and Al Rosen in 1950. Bellinger has 33 home runs through 93 games, tied with and Rudy York, and only Mark McGwire had more (37) in his first 100 games.

WHAT'S NEXT
Dodgers: makes his second start as a Dodger in the series finale Thursday night at 6:40 p.m. PT. He'll have a tough act to follow, as he debuted in blue with seven scoreless innings against the Mets.
D-backs: will make his third Major League start on his 24th birthday when the D-backs close out their series with the Dodgers at 6:40 p.m. MST on Thursday. Banda picked up his first big league win against the Giants on Friday when he threw six innings and surrendered one run.
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