The Greatest Pitching Performance in MLB History

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Chicago Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood struck out 20 batters in May of 1998, tying the major league baseball record for most strikeouts in a game, set by Roger Clemens.

There have been two hundred thirty nine thousand three hundred sixty three games played in the history of Major League Baseball. Which means there have been close to a half a MILLION starting pitchers take the mound at the big league level. According to statistician Bill James’ Game Score (a stat that measures a pitcher's performance in any given game started), there is one performance stands out as the best of all time. This performance was done by none other than Chicago Cubs hall of famer, Kerry Wood.

(THE HYPE)

Wood grew up in Irving Texas, right outside of Dallas, idolizing fellow Texans Roger Clemens and Nolan Ryan. High school baseball in Texas might be a little different than it in the rest of the country, especially if you’re a young flame-throwing righty with national attention and comparisons to those childhood idols of Ryan and Clemens. After a stellar high school career, Kerry Wood was drafted 4th overall in the 1995 draft by the Chicago Cubs. During his three years in the minors, Wood’s reputation grew and many thought he was ready for the majors at the young age of 20 years old. His fastball nearing triple digits and a slider that seemed to start at the right handed batter’s box only to end up in the 1st base dugout, gave Wood the tools to be successful in the big leagues. On April 12th, 1998, he made his major league debut against the Expos giving up 4 runs in 4.2 innings. Overall, his April numbers weren’t that much better, finishing with a 5.89 ERA going into May. But that is when baseball history happened…(THE GAME)
On May 6th, 1998 the Cubs were playing Game 2 of a 2-game series against the NL Central leading Houston Astros. This Astros team was full of studs and actually had four separate players finish the ’98 season with a batting average over .300, including names like Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio and Moises Alou. The hype and Clemens comparisons slowed down after a mediocre April from the rookie and Wood himself even said that he wasn’t feeling too great getting to the ballpark that day in May. In fact, in a 2018 interview with Ryan Dempster, he said that he was feeling low energy and confirmed that he had a terrible pre-game bullpen. “I tried to take a deep breath. Tried to forget what I did in the bullpen. Know that my body was loose and try to go get ‘em.”

The first pitch of the entire game was to Hall of Famer Craig Biggio, and that bullpen feeling must have creeped right back into Kerry Wood’s mind, as a fastball got away from him and actually hit the umpire in the face mask. But whether he felt it or not, Kerry Wood was about to make Major League Baseball history. He stuck out the side in the 1st inning and followed that up with strikeouts to the first two batters of the 2nd inning. 5 batters. 5 strikeouts. A Houston Astros team that led the majors in on-base percentage that season simply could not figure out the 20 year old rookie. However, in the 3rd inning, Ricky Gutierrez led off with what ended up being the only hit of the ballgame for the Astros. The worst part of it was the questionable ruling on the play. With a sharp ground ball hit to the left side, third baseman Kevin Orie (OR-eeee) tried to go to his left, but saw the ball slide off the tip of his webbing and off to short left. Yet, the play was ruled a hit and now lives as a point of controversy in Chicago Cubs lore forever. Former Astros Color Commentator and current Cubs color guy Jim Deshaies was on the call for that game and he said in real time that he didn’t think that should’ve been ruled a hit. Comment below what you would rule the play!

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