Dodgers place Alex Wood on the disabled list with left adductor tendonitis

LOS ANGELES — It is Alex Wood‘s turn to take a rest, placed on the disabled list by the Dodgers on Saturday with left adductor tendonitis.

Wood left Friday’s game against the Astros only slightly earlier than planned, pulled during his warmup pitches before the top of the seventh inning.

“He was stretching out his hamstrings in the inning before, and when he went out of the seventh I saw him do it again,” manager Dave Roberts said Friday. “When I see a pitcher stretching like that, and then I saw a grimace on the third throw. That was good enough for me.”

Roberts said the plan for Wood, who already threw a season-high 105 pitches in six innings, was to face only one hitter to open the seventh inning, Astros pitcher Justin Verlander. a But things changed during warmups.

Leg cramps have lingered for Wood at times in 2018, having two starts pushed back a day or two in early June.

“At that point, just knowing the history of his left hamstring and the cramping, we were trying to get ahead of it,” Roberts said. “To put him at any more risk, I didn’t want to do it.”

Wood was hung with the loss against Houston despite allowing only a pair of runs — one unearned — in his six innings, his seventh quality start in his last nine outings, with a 2.48 ERA during that span.

With 22 starts and 123⅓ innings Wood has been the relative workhorse in the Dodgers rotation, the only starting pitcher on the staff to not see time on the disabled list before now. On a team that prioritizes rest with a long-term outlook, this time off for Wood was inevitable.

Among the seven Dodgers pitchers to start at least five games in 2018, four have been sidelined for at least four weeks, including three with multiple disabled list stints. Despite the attrition, Dodgers starters lead the National League in ERA (3.29) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.22).

One of those starters currently on the disabled list is Ross Stripling, who is down with toe inflammation. He threw a simulated game on Saturday at Dodger Stadium, and is conveniently eligible to return from the DL on Thursday in Colorado, which just happens to be when Wood was scheduled to start next.

Left-hander Zac Rosscup was activated from the DL to take Wood’s active roster spot for now. Rosscup was sidelined with inflammation in his left middle finger, and pitched a scoreless inning in his one minor league rehab appearance on Thursday for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga.