Alex Wood delivers as promised in Dodgers 2-0 win over Padres

Oh, you mean that Alex Wood.

The promising young left-hander. The centerpiece to that 13-player deadline trade. The player who won 11 games with a 2.78 earned-run average last season.

Wood as a Dodger had been OK, but not exactly someone you’d be all giddy to have on your staff for the next eight years or so. In his first six starts for Los Angeles, he was 2-3 with a 4.11 ERA and 1.43 WHIP. Very OK.

But Saturday night against the Padres, the Wood with all that promise showed up, holding the Padres scoreless in his seven innings of the Dodgers 2-0 victory at Petco Park to maintain their 7 1/2-game division lead over the Giants.

Wood (10-9) gave up only three hits. He did walk four, but he struck out four, and when two of the walks came in the seventh inning with the Dodgers up just 1-0, Manager Don Mattingly left him in the game to successfully pitch out of trouble.

Two starts ago, Wood was miffed that Mattingly took him out of a game in the sixth inning when he had surrendered only one run. Saturday was his first time in seven starts that he pitched through the seventh.

Wood needed to be sharp because San Diego right-hander Tyson Ross (10-10) was also on target for most of the night.

The Dodgers scored the first run in the fourth inning when, for the second time, Andre Ethier led off with a double. Carl Crawford followed with a ground-rule double of his own to drive in Ethier.

It was still a 1-0 game when Woods walked Wil Myers to lead off the bottom of the seventh. A sacrifice bunt from catcher Austin Hedges moved Myers into scoring position, but Mattingly stayed with Wood. He struck out Clint Barmes, but then walked pinch-hitter Melvin Upton Jr., and Mattingly again stayed with him.

Wood repaid his faith, getting Yangervis Solarte to fly out to Ethier in right.

The Dodgers added a second run in the eighth inning after Ethier walked and Crawford singled him to second. Joc Pederson hit a flare the opposite way and it dropped in for a run-scoring single. Ethier went three for four and scored both runs.

The Dodgers’ up-and-down bullpen was all up Saturday. Chris Hatcher retired the Padres in order in the eight, and Kenley Jansen did the same in the ninth to pick up his 29th save of the season. Wood being able to go seven innings could be significant to the bullpen during the last month of the regular season.

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