Homers hinder Wood's outing vs. Cardinals

CINCINNATI -- Before arriving to the Reds in last winter’s blockbuster trade with the Dodgers, lefty starter Alex Wood didn’t have a reputation for giving up home runs. So it’s been a little surprising that his surrendering of homers has been an issue for Cincinnati.

During a 5-4 Reds loss to the Cardinals on Sunday for a four-game series split at Great American Ball Park, Wood gave up two more homers and now has a total of eight allowed in five starts across 24 1/3 innings. Three of his starts have featured two long balls hit off of him. His career high for a season is 16 homers, which came in 2014 over 171 2/3 innings for the Braves. With Los Angeles in 2018, Wood yielded 14 homers over 151 2/3 innings.

• Box score

“I think the moral of the story is, I have to keep the ball in the ballpark,” Wood said. “It’s been a two-week spree of homers that I’ve never really experienced [anything] quite like what’s gone on in my first four or five starts. I felt good out there today. I thought it was actually something to build off of, but definitely a frustrating day.”

A homer by Eugenio Suarez, his team-leading 34th of the season, gave the Reds a 1-0 lead in the first inning. It was also Suarez’s Major League-leading 12th first-inning homer of the season. Cincinnati came in 30-7 when leading after the first, the fourth-best record in the Majors.

The game turned on Wood with two outs in the third inning. On a 3-1 curveball that sat over the plate, Paul Goldschmidt launched a two-run homer to left-center field to give St. Louis the lead.

“I really thought I made one bad mistake today, and that was the homer to Goldschmidt,” Wood said. “That was my only bad pitch. Overall, I thought I commanded it pretty decent and I thought my stuff was all right. I got off to a good start and I thought it was going to be one of those days where everything was kind of clicking, and that just unraveled a little bit there.”

Some misfortune out of Wood’s control also happened. A Suarez throwing error in the fourth inning on Yadier Molina’s routine grounder kept the inning alive. Molina later scored on Lane Thomas’ RBI single.

In the fifth inning with one out, Tommy Edman put an 0-1 Wood pitch into the left-field seats for a solo homer and made it a 5-1 game. Unlike the Goldschmidt homer, Edman’s was a bit of bad luck for Wood. It landed just inside the foul pole in the left-field corner and according to Statcast, the drive had an expected batting average of just .080.

Goldschmidt added a two-out double two batters after Edman’s homer. A critical moment followed when Marcell Ozuna hit a drive to center field. Nick Senzel misjudged it and took a couple of steps in, before the ball sailed over his head for an RBI double.

“It could've gone different,” Reds manager David Bell said. “I think there were some balls that got through the infield, a couple of plays that could have [been] made. He's going to keep working to get better … it could've been a different day for him. Not what he wants. He wanted better -- he will be better -- but at the same time, not bad either.”

Wood finished his five innings with five runs (four earned), eight hits and one walk allowed to go along with six strikeouts. He is 1-2 with a 5.92 ERA since joining the rotation after he spent the first four months of the season on the injured list with back spasms.

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On Aug. 2 vs. the Braves, in his second start for Cincinnati, Wood turned in his best start with two earned runs allowed across 6 2/3 innings for a 5-2 win. But he lasted three innings with five earned runs in a loss to the Cubs after that. In his previous outing vs. the Nationals on Tuesday, he gave up two solo homers in the fourth inning en route to a 3-1 loss.

“Baseball teaches you a lot about life. I think I made a little adjustment in my bullpen,” Wood said. “Trying to stay together and fluid with my arm, but trying to focus on keeping my head as still as possible. I thought my stuff was better for it today. If I could take anything from today that was positive, that would be the one thing. I felt my stuff was more consistent. I guess we’ll see going forward.”