Wood doesn't sink, starts hitting

Mamba · Apr 28, 2010

ANAHEIM – It was too the point where Brandon Wood wouldn't look up. The scoreboard at Angel Stadium showed the futility of his start for over 40,000 to see every game.

.087 – his batting average after 17 games this season.

" Everyone's going to slump; it just so happens mine was at the beginning of the year," Wood said. "It's rough because in the beginning of the year, everyone looks up and sees a .087 batting average.

"I didn't look at it. I stayed away from the stats and the papers and tried to stay positive."

But since last Saturday, that number's began to climb. First it grew slowly, but in the last two days, Wood's seen his average spike to .197.

He picked up a single Saturday night against the Yankees, but the big hit came Sunday, when Wood's line drive fell in front of left fielder Marcus Thames' glove. The double scored a pair of runs and set the stage for a pair of three-hit games earlier this week.

"It was awesome to see," centerfielder Torii Hunter said. "He was starting to feel good, but he just couldn't get any hits. We started pushing for him to get some hits. The last few days, whenever he got one, we'd be up screaming and yelling.

"...He needed these hits. He did need them to get him going."

Wood entered Wednesday's game with Cleveland on a four-game hitting streak, going 8-for-15 and raising his average over 100 points. Wednesday in the Angels 4-3 win, Wood went hitless, dropping his average to .188.

"I think he's bringing confidence into the batters box. I don't think there's anything mechanically that's different. He burned a lot of at bats to get to this point, trying to feel that confidence level," Mike Scioscia said. "But you can see that, now, he's productive. He needs to carry that forward. It's really a confidence issue. It's not a mechanical issue with Brandon."

And it all began with the ball landing inches in front of Thames' glove.

"Eventually, a hitter needs to see some hits fall to understand 'Hey, I feel pretty good about how I'm contributing,'" Scioscia said. "You could be squaring balls up and guys could make great plays while you're lining out, and you'll feel good about your at bat. But eventually, you want to contribute. I think that's important to Brandon and important to us."

Scioscia ejected

Scioscia didn't get to see much of Wednesday's game from the dugout after a run-in with third base umpire Rob Drake got him ejected. Scioscia was upset at a called strike on Hideki Matsui in the second inning.

Jake Westbrook's pitch was in the dirt at Matsui's feet, and as he got out of the way, the bat appeared to cross home plate. The Indians appealed to third, where the play was called a strike.

"I've seen a lot of baseball. I've never seen anything like what happened with Hideki interpreted as a swing. He was getting out of the way of a ball trying to keep his balance and somehow third-base umpire Rob Drake construed that as a swing. That call was mindboggling.

"... He's jumping out of the way of it trying to get his balance and that was somehow construed as a swing."

Crew chief Joe West said Scioscia was warned before he was ejected.

"You saw that he swung the bat. And that's what the third-base umpire has to call," West said. "...Mike was told to stay back, he didn't and he was ejected. He can't argue balls and strikes. He can't even question it. He defied the third-base umpire's authority to say, 'That's it.' He said, 'Hold it right there,' and he kept coming and he got ejected. He knows better than that."

It was the 25th time Scioscia was ejected from a game and the first time any Angels was ejected this season.
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http://www.ocregister.com/sports/game-246378-scioscia-see.html

Mamba · Apr 28, 2010

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Wood doesn't sink, starts hitting

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