Sweetest relief: Perfect day for Cubs’ bullpen

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CHICAGO — Travis Wood was sitting on a couch in the Cubs’ clubhouse at the start of the Dodgers’ third inning on Monday when Jason Hammel went down with a cramp in his right hamstring.

“I looked in the dugout and I saw [Wood] and I pointed at him, and he said, ‘Me?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, let’s go,'” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “That’s how his day began.”

“It was early [in the game],” Wood said, explaining why he was on a comfy couch and not sitting in the sun in the bullpen. “I always come in for the first couple innings, watch the game. Luckily, we have the live [TV] feed. I was out there [in the dugout] before I was needed. I figured they needed somebody so I ran out. I heard ‘Cahill’ so I started to run back in to get [Trevor] Cahill, and then I thought they might change their mind, so I came back out and they ended up changing their mind.”

Maddon made the right choice. The lefty threw four perfect innings and combined with Justin Grimm, Pedro Strop and Hector Rondon on a one-hitter, shutting down the Dodgers, 2-0. The last time a team threw a one-hitter in a game the starting pitcher went two innings or fewer was Sept. 3, 2002, when the Rangers one-hit Baltimore despite …

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