Dodgers' Roberts on Wood's scoreless streak: 'You can look at him as a 1-A'

Alex Wood's incredible run on the mound has made a believer out of Los Angeles Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts.

On Friday night, Wood continued his remarkable month of May by throwing five shutout innings against the Chicago Cubs in a 4-0 Dodgers victory. That extended Wood's shutout streak to 25 1/3 innings, the longest such mark in the big leagues this season.

Wood only cracked the Dodgers' rotation thanks to injuries, but he's grabbed the opportunity by the horns and has quickly emerged as a leader on the staff. While the presence of Clayton Kershaw obviously means he'll never reach ace status in Los Angeles, Wood's current streak has quickly elevated him in the mind of his manager.

"Right now, yeah, you can look at him as a 1-A (starter)," Roberts said following Wood's latest gem on Friday, according to Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register.

"You talk about confidence in a player. He's as confident as any player I've been around," Roberts continued. "He prepares. He works hard and he's confident. Now when you've got that and he's healthy - in spring training he told me he's as healthy as he’s been in recent memory - that obviously lends itself to confidence."

Wood's shutout streak began in the third inning of his start on May 2 against San Francisco. Including that outing, in which he allowed five runs, the 26-year-old owns a 1.27 ERA this month in 28 1/3 innings. Over his last four scoreless starts, he's struck out 33 batters to just six walks, and has held opposing hitters to a .185 average and .456 OPS.

Wood still has a very long way to go before even approaching the major-league (and club) record of 59 consecutive shutout innings, set in 1988 by Dodgers legend Orel Hershiser.