Over the next couple of weeks, Cubs manager Joe Maddon – by virtue of winning the 2016 National League pennant and subsequent World Series – will have several very difficult decisions to make. He must not only select his pitching staff for the 2017 National League All-Star team, but must also decide who will start the annual Midsummer Classic. He could, of course, just go with Clayton Kershaw and his (current) MLB-best nine wins, or he could go with the Dodgers best pitcher – Alex Wood.

Okay, that’s a bit of a stretch, but the simple truth is that Wood is having the best season of his five-year MLB career. And if he had gone farther in each of his nine starts thus far this season, he would actually be ahead of Kershaw’s 2.23 ERA for the best ERA in the National League at 1.90.

On Friday, the 26-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina native had what was arguably the best pitching performance of his career in the Dodgers 3-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ballpark. Not only did it match the longest outings of his career, it was among his most dominant.

“This is the best my stuff’s ever been, I’ve been saying that all year,” Wood said, after the game. “Just because of that, this is the best roll I’ve ever had. For me, it’s just the consistency, and I’ve been really happy with it.”

It was very apparent very quickly that Alex Wood brought his A-game on Friday evening when he struck out the very first batter he faced – Reds speedster Billy Hamilton.
(Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA – Click on image to view video)

Wood limited a very potent (and dangerous) Reds lineup to only one run – a solo home run to Reds catcher Devin Mesoraco to lead off the bottom of the eighth inning – on four hits, while walking none and striking out five in his 8.0 innings of work, his longest outing since going 7.1 innings on May 19, 2017 in the Dodgers 7-2 win over the Miami Marlins at Dodger Stadium. It was his first 8-inning performance since September 16, 2016 when the Dodgers shutout the Colorado Rockies 2-0 – also at Dodger Stadium – in which he allowed only one hit.

“He was dominant against a team that is offensive,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters. “He got ahead of 80 percent of the hitters. He was on the attack from the beginning.”

Wood admits that facing hitters for a third and fourth time through the lineup is foreign territory for him thus far this season.

“The biggest thing the third and fourth time, the guys you’re facing have an approach, and once they’ve seen you and seen everything and you get tired, you have to commit and throw the pitch where you want,” said Wood. “But you also have to think what you threw before, what to throw now, and it becomes a chess game.”

Checkmate.