It was barely 8:45 Tuesday night when Alex Wood’s first official visit back to town was over.
Not all by his own doing — errors by third baseman Justin Turner and shortstop Corey Seager made for three unearned runs — but the former Brave endured the second-briefest start of his career in his first appearance against his former club. The Braves took him for six runs on seven hits (all singles) with three walks and a couple hit batters to further muddy a quite crammed four-inning stat line.
Of the 25 batters he faced, 15 reached base. He struck out but one.
The Dodgers fell 8-1 at Turner Field but Wood had them backpedaling after a two-run first inning.
“I was pretty amped to come in here and hopefully to have a good start,” he said. “I had a lot of family here and all that stuff. But obviously, that’s not the way it went.”
There were prominent missteps. He allowed left fielder Jeff Francoeur, who started the night hitting .083, to drive in a couple runs and score a third. He permitted catcher Tyler Flowers, who had one RBI through12 games, to drive in three on consecutive opposite field singles.
“Woody didn’t have his best stuff but we make a couple plays, it’s a different game for him,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
Wood hit Nick Markakis, who didn’t score, but also hit Adonis Garcia, who did. He also walked rookie Mallex Smith with the bases loaded.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever walked in a run in my professional career before,” Wood said. “So the walks were pretty frustrating because of the fastball command. It’s a tough one to swallow but got another one in five days.”
This leaves Wood with a 6-8 record in 15 starts as a Dodger with a 4.48 ERA. When he departed Atlanta last July 30 in the eight-man trade that brought Hector Olivera to town, he was 21-20 with a 3.10 career ERA.
He’s had worst outings as a Dodger. He twice surrendered eight runs against Arizona and Colorado last season. But not since his rookie year, when he gave up seven runs in 2-1/3 innings to Miami on Sept. 1, 2013, has he been forced out a start so early.
“That’s not really the way I pictured coming back here for the first time,” Wood said. “Fastball command just wasn’t very good tonight.”
