Brandon Wood’s grand slam caps Angels’ 10-3 win
Seventy-eight games later, Brandon Wood felt like himself again.
All the advice about his swing, all the chatter about how he might never make it in the major leagues … it all momentarily vanished Sunday afternoon.
A season that had gone horribly wrong veered into more pleasant territory in the eighth inning, when the third baseman hit the first grand slam of his career to help the Angels pull away for a 10-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies at Angel Stadium.
Wood crushed the first pitch he saw from reliever Manuel Corpas over the left-field wall and received a few extra pats on the pack from his teammates after crossing the plate.
“I haven’t put a swing on a ball like that the entire year, even in spring training,” Wood said.
Wood’s teammates seemed as buoyed by the blast as the slumping slugger, who was in the lineup only because Kevin Frandsen had jammed his thumb the previous day. Torii Hunter thrust his fist in the air as he jogged home from third base.
“I was pumped up,” Hunter said. “I thought we won the World Series.”
The Angels first need to worry about the American League West, though their pursuit of Texas has been sluggish in recent weeks.
Despite compiling a major league-best 22-9 record since May 25, the Angels have gained only half a game on their division rival. They are 4 1/2 games behind the Rangers, who open a three-game series in Anaheim on Tuesday.
“They’re leading,” Hunter said. “They’re the champs right now.”
The Angels certainly played like winners Sunday. Ervin Santana threw a season-high 120 pitches over 6 2/3 solid innings, Mike Napoli hit a three-run home run and relievers combined for 2 1/3 scoreless innings.
But nothing was as pleasing as Wood’s resurgence, however brief.
Expected to be the Angels’ everyday third baseman after hitting at least 20 home runs in five consecutive minor league seasons, Wood was sent to triple-A Salt Lake last month with a .156 batting average and only two homers in 124 at-bats.
Shortly after he returned, he was relegated to a utility role and appeared destined to log more time on the bench than in the lineup.
Then something clicked for the 25-year-old after a day off Saturday.
“It gave me some time to think and just play worry-free baseball, just go out there and play the game and have fun,” he said. “I came into [Sunday] with just really my swing and my [batting practice] feeling comfortable and confident.”
Wood said he worked with hitting coach Mickey Hatcher on developing an approach in which Wood was “just being me,” and he felt it pay dividends even when he flied out to the warning track in his first at-bat.
Wood walked in the fifth inning and flied out to center field in the seventh before stepping to the plate with the bases loaded an inning later. He got a backdoor slider from Corpas and deposited into the left-field seats, a moment that the Angels hope serves as a turning point.
“Any time a player that struggles gets some good at-bats together,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said, “you want him to carry that forward and hopefully he will.”
One memento Wood may forever keep is the ball, which he put in his jeans pocket after it was retrieved from a fan in exchange for an autographed bat. Wood said the special moment resulted from keeping things simple.
“There have been so many different things that I’ve tried that we’re just getting back to the basics and trying to get back to me and not trying to reinvent the wheel, just get back to my swing that I had all throughout the minor leagues,” Wood said. “Just because you’re up here in the spotlight doesn’t mean it needs to change.”
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