Chicago Cubs Kerry Wood Strikes Out Twenty

Kerry Wood burst on the scene as a 20 year old rookie for the Chicago Cubs in 1998. Even though his career was derailed by injuries, he fired his way into the record books on this day in 1998.

One of the Chicago Cubs exciting young phenoms to reach the majors in the latter part of the 1990’s and the early 2000’s, Kerry Wood captured the imagination with his high octane fastball and his seemingly endless potential. While he struggled at times in his first four starts, Wood truly arrived on this day in 1998. Making his fifth career start, Wood dominated the Houston Astros, tying a major league record held by Roger Clemens when he struck out twenty batters. Wood set the National League record, passing Tom Seaver, David Cone and Steve Carlton, who had struck out 19 batters. He also set the rookie record for strikeouts in a game, passing Bill Gullickson‘s 18 strikeouts recorded on September 10, 1980.

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Wood was virtually unhittable that day, allowing only an infield single to

in the top of the third, and hitting

with a pitch in the top of the sixth inning. En route to what was the greatest nine inning game in Major League history

according to game score

, Wood struck out every Astros player to come to the plate, including pinch hitter

. On the losing side,

also pitched a solid game, firing a complete game while allowing two runs, one earned, on eight hits and two walks, striking out ten. However, as strong as his performance was, Wood was in the process of a historically great day. As it would turn out, that would be one of the high points of Wood’s career. Plagued by arm injuries that led to sixteen separate treks to the disabled list, Wood would be shut down over the final month of 1998, only to pitch in Game Three of the NLDS. That start is thought to have made his injury worse, leading to Wood being shut down for the entirety of 1999.

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Kerry Wood had the potential to be a superstar during his time with the Chicago Cubs. He flashed that potential at times, but he would never be any better than he was on this day in 1998.