Alex Wood looking to regain All-Star form Friday against Nationals

On several occasions each week, usually two or three times in between his starts, Alex Wood will climb atop a mound and simulate his delivery.

He does not actually throw a baseball. He often holds a weighted, 24-ounce ball in his glove to strengthen his front side. He pantomimes his delivery to the plate, looking to rebuild the muscle memory of the mechanics that carried him to his first All-Star appearance earlier in the summer and to scrape away the defects that have hampered him in the season’s second half.

“When you get into some bad habits during the season, you can either try to find a Band-Aid and get by with what you’re doing, or you can try to fix the problem,” Wood said this week as he prepared for his start on Friday night against Washington. “It’s easy to stick Band-Aids on things. But with what we’re trying to achieve and what I’m trying to achieve for the rest of the year, this is something I’ve been working hard on.”

Wood has a record of 14-3 with a 2.81 earned-run average, and he understands his prominence in the Dodgers’ plans for the postseason. He pitched his way out of the bullpen and into the team’s playoff rotation — so long as he ends his recent string of ineffective performances.

There have been various issues. Early in the second half, Wood felt the sharpness of his pitches had decreased. He dealt with inflammation in his SC joint, which connects the sternum to the clavicle. After a stint on the 10-day disabled list to rest, Wood has struggled with command.

He is running out of time to rectify his issues. That will create more scrutiny on his outing against the Nationals, who have already clinched first place in the National League East. He will pitch two days before Hyun-Jin Ryu, who has a record of 5-7 with a 3.59 ERA and looms as a potential replacement in the playoff rotation if Wood cannot fix his issues. The Dodgers would prefer to keep Wood in the rotation, which he helped anchor earlier in the season.

“He’s a guy who we’re counting on,” manager Dave Roberts said. “With what he did in the first half and how he performed, to see the characteristics of his pitches — as well as the results — over the last few starts hasn’t been ideal. It’s something we’ve talked about, and I know he’s aware of it.

“He’s really focusing on pitching well in this next start. And after that, we’ll evaluate, and see where we go from there.”

The gap between Wood’s performance in the two halves is sizable. The differences are apparent in both his process and his results. His two-seam fastball velocity averaged 92.95 mph in the first half, according to Brooks Baseball. It has sunk to 91.63 mph since the break.

Wood relies on his sinker to generate soft contact and grounders. He ranked second among the 92 pitchers who threw at least 80 innings in the first half with a 63.5% ground-ball rate. That number has dropped to 44.8% in the second half.

With more balls in the air, more are leaving the ballpark. Wood permitted two home runs in 15 first-half appearances. In nine second-half starts, he has served up 11 homers.

As his fastballs become more appealing to hitters, Wood is missing fewer bats. He struck out 10.82 batters per nine innings in the first half, ending 30.9% of at-bats with a strikeout. His strikeout rate has fallen to 6.54 batters per nine innings in the second half.

At first, the problem was physical. Wood missed time in June with inflammation in his sternum. The symptoms resurfaced in August. The stiffness in the joint did not affect him much on the mound, he said, but it did limit his ability to complete his training between starts. He did not throw a bullpen session before a start on Aug. 21, when the Pittsburgh Pirates hit three homers off him.

After that outing, Wood told team officials that he would benefit from a brief stay on the disabled list. His concern was for the playoffs in October, when he felt he needed to be in top condition, rather than the regular season, when the Dodgers held a double-digit lead in the National League West.

The Dodgers activated Wood midway through their 1-16 skid, The San Diego Padres smacked a pair of homers against him on Sept. 3. Six days later, Wood permitted five runs in five innings against the Colorado Rockies.

The results irritated Wood. But he pointed to progress in the crispness of his pitches, and felt they showed more life than they had before his second term on the disabled list.

“I feel really, really close,” Wood said. “It’s just getting that tempo and timing to match up with the command of my stuff.”

The work continued this week in San Francisco. Roberts received an encouraging report from pitching coach Rick Honeycutt after Wood’s bullpen session on Wednesday.

Wood understood the importance of his start on Friday. The Dodgers are still recovering from their recent swoon, even after winning a series over the lowly Giants. But Wood maintained his sense of calm, with October carrying more weight than September.

“There’s one game, two games, three games — maybe four — that really I’m ultimately worried about,” Wood said. “If I’m ready to go by then, that’s all that really matters.”

andy.mccullough@latimes.com

Twitter: @McCulloughTimes