Travis Wood shines as Cincinnati Reds defeat Houston Astros 6-1 – MLB Update
Travis Wood hit a homer and pitched seven scoreless innings as Cincinnati Reds beat Houston Astros 6-1 at Minute Maid Park, Houston on Monday, May 9.
The consistency that this Reds’ talent has demonstrated is reassuring for the team manager. "I think it's easier when you see him the second time," Cincinnati manager Dusty Baker said. "The first time, it's in his favor because you don't know much about
him."
Aneury Rodriguez who pitches for Houston and is famously known for his resilience, was subject to massive hits by Reds’ hitters. However, Wood out did all. Something, that did not go unacknowledged by his team-mate Brandon Phillips. Brandon humorously commented.
"It's crazy seeing our pitcher hit home runs like that," Phillips said. "When he did that, I was like: 'If he can do that, then everybody else can do something good."
Cincinnati Reds have discovered a potentially flawless all-rounder in Wood. The starting pitcher, who has thrown some awe-inspiring shut-out innings lately, is now doing it with bat. "My numbers didn't say so, but I feel comfortable up there with the bat,"
Travis Wood said of his work on offence.
After two scoreless innings that Wood pitched, he struck Rodriguez hard to left and score the first three-run homer for the team. The perfectly executed hit gave a 3-0 lead to Cincinnati in the third inning. Wood performed brilliantly with the bat and also
pitched effectively, as the Reds dominated the game.
Ramon Hernandez scored a brilliant two-run homer in the fourth inning to take his team’s score to 5-0, virtually rendering Houston unable to break the lead. Wood, who struck a magical hit earlier, was going extraordinarily well with his unhittable fastballs
and contained Houston’s hitters.
Rodriguez kept giving up hits while Wood maintained his dominance on the game. When Nelson Figueroa replaced Rodriguez, hoping to change the course of the game, Drew Stubbs singled to left, adding to the woes of Houston’s defence. Figueroa gave up three
hits in the sixth inning and allowed one run, that made the score 6-0 for Reds.
Hunter Pence scored the only run for the Astros in the eighth inning. However, that was actually too late and too little to outplay the Reds. Mike Leake pitched a shut-out ninth inning to give an emphatic 6-1 victory to the Reds against the Astros.
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