Wood Great in Rehab Start!

Thanks to MLB.COM-

CHICAGO -- Kerry Wood made his first Minor League rehab outing on Saturday in Mesa, Ariz., and struck out the side. That's good news for the Cubs.
Wood has been on the disabled list since the start of the regular season with tendinitis in his right shoulder. He did pitch in Spring Training, totaling five innings over five games. But the right-hander, who won the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 1998, had to be shut down because of his cranky right shoulder.
On Saturday in Mesa, pitching for the Cubs' Rookie League team against San Francisco's squad, he threw 14 pitches and struck out all three batters he faced.
"Kerry has worked hard," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said Saturday. "Let him work. Let him keep working at his own pace. Let's not rush him and see where that takes us.
"He's a good young man," Piniella said of the right-hander, who turned 30 on June 16. "It'd be a really good feel-good story, No. 1, and more important than that, it would be a story that would help our situation down the road."
When Wood does come back, he'll pitch strictly in relief and not as a starter. He came back last season as a starter and was 1-2 with a 4.12 ERA in four games but had to be shut down because of problems with his shoulder. Wood, who had arthroscopic surgery on his shoulder in August 2005, has a career 71-56 record and 3.68 ERA.