Alex Wood and Hector Santiago went in opposite directions on Saturday, resulting in the Los Angeles Dodgers suffering a 7-3 loss to the Chicago White Sox in their 2018 Cactus League finale.
Chase Utley led off the bottom of the first inning with a double to straightaway center field, which was followed by a Kiké Hernandez walk. Two batters later, Austin Barnes cleared the bases with his first home run of the spring.
Santiago prevented the Dodgers from adding to their 3-0 lead by retiring Kyle Farmer to strand runners at the corners. More two-out trouble arose for the left-handed starter, when Hernandez reached on an infield single and Yasmani Grandal worked a walk.
But Barnes wasn’t able to replicate his success from the previous inning and struck out swinging. Santiago settled in from there as he retired seven batters in a row, including striking out the side in the fourth, his final inning of work.
Whereas Santiago seemed to find success as he went along, Wood began on a strong note before faltering. A check-swing resulted in a leadoff single to open the game but didn’t amount to anything.
Wood proceeded to retire 11 of 12 batters faced through four innings and had five strikeouts to that point. His breaking ball lacked bite in the fifth, which led to the White Sox stringing hits together.
Following Tyler Saladino’s leadoff single, Wood’s errant pickoff throw allowed him to advance into scoring position. Keon Barnum slugged a two-run homer, and Juan Perez’s double left the tying and go-ahead runners in scoring position with nobody out.
Wood wasn’t able to cleanly field a tapper hit up along the third-base line, resulting in the White Sox tying the game. Avisail Garcia’s sacrifice fly then gave them a 4-3 lead before Wood could get out of the inning.
His afternoon finished at five innings pitched, four runs (two earned) allowed on five hits, with one walk and six strikeouts.
Yimi Garcia, who is a candidate to begin the season on the disabled list, allowed a solo home run in his first action since March 18.
