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.