All It Took Was Wood To Start Pirates Ronny Cedeno's Fire
On Friday April 22 the Pittsburgh Pirates claimed Brandon Wood off waivers from the Los Angeles Angels, who had designated the infielder for assignment.
Wood, who primarily plays short and third, was expected to take playing time away from shortstop Ronny Cedeno. At the time Cedeno was batting .170 with only one extra-base hit and had committed three errors.
Jennifer Langosch/MLB.com reported that Clint Hurdle planned to play Wood.
"Will he play? Yes." Hurdle said. "He's going to play. He's going to get at-bats."
Wood has played regularly since joining the Pirates. However, only six of his 14 games have been at short and Cedeno has picked his game up.
He has hit in 14 of his last 16 games raising his batting average 64 points to .243 and has knocked in seven of his 13 RBI in the past two weeks. In addition, he's gone 26 straight games without an error.
Cedeno's performance has not gone unnoticed by his skipper. Jeff Seidel/Special to MLB.com reported Hurdle said "Very quietly, he's provided consistency to both parts of his game which have been question marks for him coming in. And that's good for him."
That consistency has kept Cedeno in the lineup and he looks to be the Pirates regular short-stop, for now.
