Kerry Wood: The greatest game ever pitched

Kerry Wood had one of the greatest pitching performances with 20 strikeouts, setting a National League record on May 6, 1998, at Wrigley Field against the Houston Astros. Photo by The Starting Nine.

Jack Butler

When Kerry Wood was 8 years old, the legendary Boston Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens had his first 20 strikeout game on April 29, 1986, in a 3-1 win over the Seattle Mariners at Fenway Park. Clemens struck out the side 3 times and had five 2-strikeout innings while having a single frame with 1 strikeout. Five previous pitchers held the previous mark of 19 Ks in a 9-inning game – Charlie Sweeney (1884), Hugh Daily (1884), Steve Carlton (1969), Tom Seaver (1970), and Nolan Ryan (1976).

Clemens tied his own record a decade later against the Detroit Tigers, in his third to last start in a Red Sox uniform. The Rocket once again struck out the side thrice, had five 2-strikeout innings, and a single frame with 1 strikeout on 151 pitches where 67% of his pitches were for strikes. At the time of that performance, Wood was a year removed from being drafted by the Chicago Cubs with the fourth selection of the first round of the MLB June Amateur Draft from Grand Prairie HS.

In Wood’s third year in the minors where he spent part of it in AA and AAA, Clemens began his tenure with the AL East rival Toronto Blue Jays and turned his career around by winning the pitching triple crown with 21 wins, a 2.05 ERA, and 292 strikeouts to earn his fourth Cy Young Award. Wood went 10-9 in 22 starts, compiling a 4.57 ERA in the minors over 151.2 frames while striking out 186 to walking 132 for a high 7.6 BB9. Then, after only making a single start in AAA in 1998 going 5 innings of 1 hit ball and striking out 11, he was called up to the Chicago Cubs.

Wood made his major league debut on April 12 at Stade Olympique against the 2-8 Montreal Expos. The 21-year-old right-hander struggled in his first outing as he only lasted 4.2 frames, giving up 4 hits, 4 earned runs, and walked 3 while striking out 7. Montreal won the game 4-1, handing Wood the first loss of his young career but bounced back in his Wrigley Field debut. In front of 34,652 fans, Wood blanked the Los Angeles Dodgers for 5 shutout innings of 4-hit ball with 7 strikeouts. The Cubs provided him with an eight-run 1st to defeat the Dodgers 8-1 to give Wood his first big league victory.

The Dodgers faced Wood six days later with a different result. L.A. rocked the young starter for 7 runs on just 2 hits with the big blow being a Mike Piazza grand slam in the 2nd inning that made it 7-1 Dodgers. Wood only went 1.2 innings and in addition to the runs he gave up, he walked 4 that all came around to score. It was the worst start of the season but on the final day of April at “The Friendly Confines,” Wood had his first 7-inning outing where he allowed 5 hits, a single run with 2 walks, and 9 strikeouts. The Cubs were victorious over the St. Louis Cardinals 8-3 to improve to 14-13 which featured the two members of the home run chase – Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire who ended up with 66 and 70 home runs respectively.

Another turn in the rotation tabbed Wood against NL Central Division Houston Astros on May 6 at Wrigley Field. He was facing a team with two future Hall of Famers in Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell along with the underrated slugger Moises Alou. Wood brought electric stuff to the mound to dominate Astros’ hitters all afternoon to tie a major league record of 20 strikeouts in a single game which also set an NL record. Wood struck out Biggio, Derek Bell, and Bagwell in the first and then Jack Howell and Alou in the second. Mark Grace led off the bottom of the frame with a double and advanced to third on a throwing error. Henry Rodríguez drove him in on a sacrifice fly and the Cubs were ahead 1-0.

In the third, Brad Ausmus was Wood’s lone strikeout victim which gave him a total of 6 strikeouts through the first three stanzas. The fourth saw him strike out Bagwell and Howell while the 5th he struck out the side for the second time on the afternoon. An inning later, Wood got Houston starter Shane Reynolds looking to finish the middle three stanzas with 6 strikeouts for a total of 12.

Wood took the hill in the 7th where he struck out the heart of the order on 14 pitches. He then proceeded to strike out Dave Clark, Ricky Gutierrez, and Ausmus in the following frame. In the home half, pinch hitter José Hernández grounded into a 5-4 forceout to drive in Mickey Morandini for the second and final Cubs run of the game. Wood entered the 9th facing pinch hitter Bill Spiers, Biggio, and Bell and had already thrown 110 pitches. Spiers struck out, Biggio grounded to Jeff Blauser at short, and Bell swung and missed on a 1-2 pitch for Wood’s 20th strikeout to earn his first complete-game shutout. In the final three stanzas, Wood had 8 strikeouts which included back-to-back innings of striking out the side. Overall, he only allowed two baserunners – a leadoff single to Gutierrez in the 3rd and hit Biggio with two outs in the 6th – and impressively didn’t walk a batter while throwing 75% of his pitches for strikes. Wood even had a Game Score of 105 which is the highest recorded by a pitcher in a 9 inning game.

This performance is shocking since it was Wood’s fifth career start and he’d never gone more than 7 innings in any of them where he faced an Astros team that wound up going 102-60 to win the NL Central and had one of the best offenses in the league. Compared to Clemens’ two 20 strikeout games with the first against a Mariners team that ended up going 67-95 for dead last in the AL West and the second versus a Tigers club that finished 53-109 in the AL East. It’s still impressive but looking at the big picture Clemens just dominated a weak lineup while Wood pitched his greatest game against a solid nine hitters.

Wood went 10-4 in his final 21 starts to finish the 1998 campaign 13-6 with a 3.40 ERA, and 233 strikeouts to take home the NL Rookie of the Year Award while Clemens won a second straight triple crown compiling 20 victories, a 2.65 ERA, and 271 strikeouts for his 5th Cy Young. Both their careers took different turns the next year as Wood had Tommy John surgery missing the entire 1999 season. Clemens, on the other hand, is traded to the New York Yankees and pitched the clincher for them in the 95th World Series for his first championship.

From 2000 onward, Clemens went 107-50 with a 3.34 ERA, and 1,356 strikeouts while winning another World Series and falling in two others. Wood went 73-69 with a 3.71 ERA, 1,359 strikeouts and 63 saves, along with a trip to the 2003 NLCS. The Cubs hurler had such a promising career, but injuries changed all that and he was done with baseball in 2012 at the age of 35. Since Wood’s retirement, only one pitcher has recorded a 20-strikeout game which was Max Scherzer on May 11, 2016, at Nationals Park during his first of two NL Cy Young Awards seasons.

All in all, there have been five 20-strikeout games if you count Randy Johnson and Tom Cheney’s in extra-inning performances and with pitchers not going as deep into games as they did two decades ago, it seems unlikely we’ll see another performance like it.