Chicago Cubs name Travis Wood for Friday’s start against Arizona Diamondbacks – MLB News
Chicago Cubs have named Travis Wood as the starter for the opener of three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, starting Friday, September 28. Both teams are entering the series with a lot of aims and to avoid potential setbacks.
Cubs so far have a 59-97 record this season. Their aim is to avoid the 100-loss mark, something that they could not do last year, losing more than 100 games. For that to happen this year, Travis Wood has an enormous burden on his shoulders as he is one of the few veteran pitchers in the roster.
Besides, if he manages to win Friday’s game, it will be a great finish for him as the season is concluding for the Cubs.
"I just want to finish strong and give the team a chance to win," Wood said. "We're trying hard to not lose 100 games, and I'm going to do everything I can to prevent that."
What remains to be a cardinal problem that the Cubs will be looking to deal with is the struggling offence. The team manager did refer to it while speaking about the three-game series against the Diamondbacks and the offence’s performance throughout this season.
"That's been the biggest Achilles heel," Sveum said. "We can talk about all the facets of the game, but we're close to the bottom of the barrel in scoring runs and pitching as well. You have to score runs, you have to hit home runs, you have to have slugging percentage to score runs."
On the other hand, Arizona Diamondbacks have slated Ian Kennedy for Friday’s game. The Diamondbacks, it is now or never situation as they are fighting for the second Wild Card spot, something they won the past season.
Kennedy, in his last start against the Cubs, was not impressive, allowing five runs coupled with 10 hits in just over four innings. He would definitely like to avoid that in this start, as the team manager Kirk Gibson wants better execution from the pitcher.
It will be interesting to see whether or not the Cubs and Diamondbacks overcome the respective challenges faced in this series.
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