Alex Wood never tried to act too cool to get excited when pitching in the big leagues as a rookie, and the Braves left-hander didn’t try to downplay his performance against the Red Sox and David Ortiz on Friday at sold-out Jet Blue Park at Fenway South.
“I definitely felt pretty darn good today,” Wood said after allowing two hits — singles by Grady Sizemore — in three scoreless innings of a 4-1 Braves loss. “I really felt like my rhythm and timing of everything was so fluid today, like it was the middle of the season for me. Had all three (pitches) working. Whenever I can do that, I usually have a pretty good day.”
Wood, who is competing with Freddy Garcia for a spot in the starting rotation, fired 28 strikes in 39 pitches and had no walks and two strikeouts, including Ortiz looking with a runner at first and one out in the first inning. Wood froze the veteran Red Sox designated hitter with a knee-buckling breaking ball for strike three.
“I threw him some good fastballs in and out early, and I ended up throwing him a really good breaking ball,” Wood said. “That wasn’t the only good one I threw today; if anything, I was probably most excited about that. I was able to throw my breaking ball consistently for strikes. If I can continue to do that, it’s going to be really huge for me.”
After Sizemore led off the first inning with an infield single, Wood retired the next eight batters, including strikeouts of Ortiz and former Braves catcher David Ross.
“He gets excited, and he competes,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “He’s a bulldog on the mound. We saw that last year in Washington, I believe that was the game when he got a little excited and got himself ejected. … But he’s a guy that likes to compete. He pounds the strike zone, and he just keeps giving you good outings after good outings.”
Following the Sizemore leadoff hit, Wood got Dustin Pedroia on a fly out and Mike Napoli on an inning-ending pop-up. But it was the Ortiz strikeout between those two that seemed to surprise many Red Sox fans.
“You could feel Big Papi’s presence when he got in the box,” Wood said. “He kind of has that swagger about him. He just gets in the box and it’s like … that’s Big Papi. He’s such a great hitter, and he’s done so many great things. It was pretty neat to throw to him and Pedroia and some of those other guys.”
Wood and Garcia have each made two starts and pitched five scoreless innings with no walks. Garcia has been perfect in his innings and has five strikeouts, while Wood has been charged with five hits and has four strikeouts.
Johnson homecoming: Chris Johnson was scheduled to have the day off like the rest of the Braves' regular infielders, but that wasn't going to happen with the team playing in his hometown, in a ballpark on the same street where he grew up.
“All the things that my mom has done for me, if she asks me to be on the trip, then I’ve got to do my best to be on the trip,” Johnson said before the game. “It’ll be fun.”
With about 20 family members among the crowd, including his mother and five of his brothers and sisters, Johnson played 6 1/2 innings and went 1-for-3 with a single.
Johnson grew up about five minutes from where three-year-old JetBlue Park at Fenway South is situated. He graduated from Bishop Verot High School in Fort Myers, and his father, Ron, was a third-base coach for the Red Sox in 2010-11. Ron Johnson now manages the Orioles’ Triple-A Norfolk affiliate.
Heyward homers: Jason Heyward had two of the Braves' four hits Friday including a sixth-inning home run off right-hander Junichi Tazawa, Heyward's second of the spring. He has three hits in his past four at-bats after starting 2-for-15.
While two of Heyward’s five hits this spring have been home runs, Todd Cunningham has the only other Braves homer in the team’s 102 non-Heyward hits through 11 games.
Etc.: The Braves have two wins, seven losses and two ties, and six of the seven losses have gone to pitchers not projected to be on the opening-day roster. Minor league pitcher Cody Martin got the loss Friday after giving up three runs, three hits and a walk while recording two outs in the seventh inning. He's allowed eight hits and five runs in 2 2/3 innings. … Prospect J.R. Graham gave up consecutive one-out singles in the eighth inning before Mark Lamm replaced him and induced a double-play grounder. Gonzalez said Graham was replaced only because he had thrown a lot of pitches, and the Braves are being careful with him after he missed much of last season with a strained shoulder.
