San Francisco Giants starter Alex Wood seen here throwing against the San Diego Padres on Sun Jul 10, 2022 in San Diego. Pitched four plus inning on Fri Jul 15, 2022 against the Milwaukee Brewers for the win. (AP News photo)

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – In a game that quickly became a comedy of errors, which turned into a crazy swing of momentum in the Giants’ favor, what became overshadowed was the re-emergence of starter Alex Wood.

After a mixed bag of results last month, the left-hander turned in his third solid start in a row Friday night at Oracle Park, although the end result did not tell the entire story. He gave up three runs – two earned – on four hits over 4 2/3 innings, but he was undone by an untimely fielding mistake that ultimately cost him a chance at a win.

Wood had not exactly brought his best stuff to his home park. He entered Friday’s contest with a 2-3 home record, while opponents had hit .301 against him in those outings. Particularly damaging was a May 22 start against San Diego that saw him surrender five runs before being yanked after only three innings.

He began to narrow that down in June while collecting a pair of home wins, and that form extended into Friday. After giving up a single to lead off the game, Wood escaped the inning without allowing another runner and was cruising along until the Brewers mounted a two-out threat in the fifth.

With the Giants leading 2-0, Kolten Wong and Jonathan Davis both singled, but he was poised to get out of the inning when Christian Yelich bounced one harmlessly to the right side. However, first baseman LaMonte Wade, Jr. misplayed the hop off the infield dirt, allowing the ball to get past him as a run scored.

At that point, he was pulled for Tyler Rogers, who promptly gave up a walk to load the bases. Andrew McCutcheon, a former Giant, immediately followed that by lashing a bases-clearing double into the left-field corner to give Milwaukee a 4-2 lead.  

Wade busts out of slump

After showing some serious promise last year, Wade has struggled to regain that form at the plate in 2022.

A lot of that has had to do with inflammation in his left knee that knocked him out of a total of 61 games this year. He landed on the injured list last month and had gone 5-for-40 since his reinstatement.

He made some loud contact on Friday night, however, and seems to be showing signs of rejuvenation. After lining out to lead off the first inning, Wade smacked a Woodruff fastball into the gap in right-center in the second and wound up with a stand-up triple, scoring two runs in the process and giving the Giants a 2-0 lead.

However, his fielding error three innings later quickly decreased the impact of the hit, as the miscue was shaping up until the Giants’ late heroics that won them the game in the bottom of the ninth.