Minor League Report – 05/08/06
With Updated Information on Kerry Wood
Sunday was not just any other day in the Minor League system of the Chicago Cubs. The much anticipated rehab assignment by Kerry Wood took place in Peoria and Wood took the first step on his way back to the hill for the Cubs. Wood was in command and struck out 12 on Sunday, which tied an O’Brien Field Record.
The Iowa Cubs beat the Memphis Redbirds on a homerun in the 10th off the bat of Buck Coats. The I-Cubs won the game 5-4. The West Tenn Diamond Jaxx played the Mississippi Braves on Sunday and won as well, 5-3….but all of the attention was on Kerry Wood. Kerry Wood – Jody Davis, the manager of the Peoria Chiefs, must have felt like he was back in the Majors on Sunday with all of the excitement and attention surrounding his team. Kerry Wood took the hill for the Chiefs against the Lansing Lugnuts (Toronto Blue Jays) and was spectacular. Wood threw 70 pitches, 51 for strikes, walked one, hit a batter, allowed one hit to Josh Bell in the 2nd inning and struck out 12 to tie an O’Brien Field Record. The Chiefs could not hold the 1-0 lead and Wood received a no decision. The Chiefs won the game in the 10th with a walk-off home run by Ryan Norwood, who was 3 for 5 on the night.
But the main story was Kerry Wood. Wood faced 18 batters in 5 innings of work and his fastball topped out at 97 MPH. Wood recorded two fly outs and one ground out and said he felt fine in a post-game press conference. Wood also said he is looking to make a start for the Iowa Cubs sometime in the next 5 days. Wood said he is also looking to build his pitch count to 85 at that time and is hoping to be back with the Cubs by the middle of the month. There was 8,426 on hand to see Wood’s performance, the sixth largest in Chiefs history and the fourth largest in O’Brien Field history.
Here is the box score from the Peoria Chiefs game against Lansing.
Iowa Cubs – Michael Wuertz picked up the win in Memphis and Buck Coats supplied the power as the I-Cubs beat the Redbirds 5 to 4 on Sunday afternoon, this was the I-Cubs third win in a row. Brandon Sing and Casey McGehee also homered in the win. Wuertz picked up the win despite allowing the Redbirds to tie the game in the bottom of the 9th. Felix Pie went 1 for 5, Buck Coats added a single to go 2 for 5 with 3 strikeouts and his average is now at .364 for the season. Raul Valdes started the game and gave up 3 runs on 7 hits in 6 innings. Federico Baez threw a scoreless inning, allowing only 2 hits and Kerry Ligtenberg pitched a perfect 8th inning of relief. Mark Watson picked up his first save of the season.
West Tenn Diamond Jaxx – Eric Patterson homered in the 1st inning on Sunday for the Diamond Jaxx and they beat the Mississippi Braves 5-3. Patterson finished the day going 2 for 4 (a home run and a double) with 2 runs scored. Micah Hoffpauir and Scott Moore both doubled and Chris Walker and Luis Montanez each added a hit in the victory. J.R. Mathes started the game and gave up 3 runs, 2 earned, on 8 hits in 6 innings. Thomas Atlee pitched 2 innings and gave up only 1 hit to preserve the victory for J.R. Mathes and Clay Rapada picked up his 8th save of the season.
The future is looking bright and hopefully Wood will be back healthy and productive soon.