Wood uses his no-hit stuff to help Giants stop losing streak originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
When they walked into Oracle Park on Thursday afternoon, the Giants had not taken part in a handshake line in 11 days. They were coming off their first 0-7 road trip in 37 years.
But baseball is a funny game. You are forever just nine innings from feeling better, from grabbing some semblance of momentum, and on the first night back home, Gabe Kapler found himself standing in the dugout and wondering how high he would let his starting pitcher's count get as he chased a no-hitter.
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Kapler never had to make a difficult decision. Alex Wood gave up a leadoff single in the seventh but not much else as the Giants beat the Cubs 4-2, snapping the seven-game skid that started the second half.
The lineup was opportunistic and the defense was clean, but Wood was the story on this night. He walked the first batter he faced and then hit the second one, but the Cubs didn't record their first hit until Ian Happ's single to lead off the seventh.
The no-hit bid was the longest of Wood's career and longest this season by a Giants pitcher.
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"It was a weird first inning, frustrating because I pride myself on throwing a lot of strikes," Wood said. "I try to be the aggressor and put pressure on hitters. When I was missing there in the first and second inning it was a little bit frustrating, but I was glad they tried to run and Joey (Bart) made a nice throw (to third) and that play helped me get out of that (first) inning. I felt like I settled down as the game went."
When a pitcher has a no-no going, the defense comes into play at some point. That was the case in the sixth, when Mike Yastrzemski took a perfect route on Christopher Morel's liner to right-center and made a leaping grab to rob him of extra bases. At the moment it looked like it might be "the play" in a Wood no-hitter, but it ended up being the best of a very solid defensive night for the Giants.
The advanced metrics say this is one of the best starting staffs in baseball, but that hasn't always played out on the field because the defense has been so sloppy. It was solid all night Thursday and better than that at points, and that helped Wood cruise into the seventh.
"We're going to be fine if we play good defense behind our starting pitchers," Kapler said.
The all-around effort got the Giants back on firmer footing with the MLB trade deadline just five days away. If the Giants decide to buy, they could use some bullpen help, but Dom Leone, John Brebbia and Camilo Doval didn't sweat much on this night.
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For a while, it looked like Kapler wouldn't need them. But as the zeros piled up for Wood, so did the pitches. He had thrown 79 of them through six hitless innings and Kapler and his coaches started discussing what was next. Wood has only crossed 100 twice this season and his high is 104, but his 81st pitch Thursday ended up being the one that ended the no-hit bid.
"We always do that. You're around 75 pitches, there hasn't been a hit on the grass yet, and you start to wonder what might happen if he's in the eighth or the ninth and he's up there around 105, 100 pitches," Kapler said. "I probably would have let him keep rolling, but I don't know."
