Major League Baseball

PERFECT SETUP JOB BY WOOD

Published Oct. 8, 2010 10:23 p.m. ET

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MINNEAPOLIS - The Yankees' new bridge to Mariano Rivera is made of Wood.

Kerry Wood pitched the eighth inning for the second night in a row against the Twins in Game 2 of the ALDS last night, and was almost perfect.

Wood threw 10 pitches - nine of them for strikes. He struck out two batters and got another to ground out, setting up Rivera.

"My job is to go out there and put up a zero," Wood said.

That is basically what he's done since coming to the Yankees in a deadline deal from the Indians. He went 21 straight appearances without allowing a run during one stretch after the trade. The Yankees' bullpen had an ERA of 3.95 before Wood joined them. That dropped to 2.79 after the deal.

Along the way, he supplanted Joba Chamberlain as manager Joe Girardi's eighth-inning reliever.

"I didn't really have any expectations about my role was going to be," Wood said. "I just wanted to come in here and mix in with the guys down there and help any way I could. I got off to a pretty good start and just kind of kept going with it."

Wood said he was unhappy with his Game 1 performance when he got two outs in the eighth, but walked one and gave up a single. That forced Rivera to come in for a four-out save, something the Yankees hope to avoid with their 40-year-old closer.

"Ultimately, I'd like to have Mo come in for three-out saves," Wood said. "Tonight was a better performance for me than last night. I was able to stay aggressive and go after guys."

The playoffs are not new to Wood, who went four times while with the Cubs. Wood was Chicago's Game 7 starter in the 2003 NLCS. When the Indians shipped him to New York on July 31, he began to think about returning to playing October baseball.

He talked of the professionalism that resides in the Yankees' clubhouse.

"That's kind of what I've seen since the day I got here," Wood said. "There's not a lot of panic. We know how good we are. We know what we have in this clubhouse. Guys go out and take care of business."