20 Years Ago Today, Kerry Wood Pitched A One-Hit, Complete Game Shutout With 20 Strikeouts

20 years ago today, in his fifth major league start, Kerry Wood tied the MLB record for most strikeouts in a game with 20. If you ever get into a bar debate with your friends over what the single greatest pitching performance of all-time was, this is the answer.

If you’ve been reading me for a while, then you know that Game Score is a pitching statistic that I swear by. It’s a formula that was developed by Bill James with the purpose of evaluating a pitcher’s performance, while only weighing the factors that the pitcher himself can control. If you look up at the end of the year, the Cy Young award winners in both leagues usually led their respective leagues in average game score.

On Friday night, the Astros Gerrit Cole recorded just the 14th start in baseball history that registered a Game Score of 100 or higher when he threw a complete game, one-hit shutout with 16 strikeouts and one walk. That was a Game Score of an even 100. In Kerry Wood’s 1998 masterpiece, it was a complete game, one-hit shutout with 20 strikeouts, no walks and a hit batter. Wood’s historical start on May 6, 1998, which got a Game Score of 105, was the highest Game Score ever recorded — greater than any no-hitter, perfect game or 20-strikeout performance prior to or since that day.