Eighteen years after Kerry Wood: Will we see another 20-strikeout game?

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On this date in 1998, Chicago Cubs rookie Kerry Wood tied the major league record with 20 strikeouts. It looked like this:

It may have been the most dominant major league game ever pitched. By game score, it’s the best in history. He gave up one infield hit and issued no walks (although he did hit one batter, which isn’t counted in game score). For the quality of his stuff that day, check out curveballs at the 50-second mark to Jeff Bagwell and at 1:25 to strike out Dave Clark.

Astros fans may point out that it was a cloudy, gray afternoon and visibility wasn’t great. Plate ump Jerry Meals may have had a generous strike zone that day (Astros starter Shane Reynolds had 10 strikeouts).

Of course, it takes a special confluence of events for a pitcher to strike out 20 guys in a game, beyond explosive talent. That’s why it has happened only three other times in a nine-inning game.

Roger Clemens, April 29, 1986

This was the young Clemens, relying on a high fastball and curveball; the splitter would come later. Plate ump Vic Voltaggio appeared to help a bit; check him out ringing up Al Cowens at the 45-second mark and Ivan Calderon at 1:30. Still, Clemens simply blew his fastball past the helpless Mariners that night. That was also a team in the midst of an unbelievable strikeout slump: They’d struck out 18 times against the A’s 10 days earlier and in a nine-game span around the Clemens game, struck out 16, 11, eight, 12, 20, 16, five, 13 and 10 times. They set the American League record for strikeouts in a season (since broken). “He was awesome, just awesome,” Red Sox catcher Rich Gedman said of Clemens after the game. “None of the Mariners said anything. They looked like they wanted to say something, but they didn’t know what to say.”

Roger Clemens, September 18, 1996

This was an older Clemens, in one of his final games with the Red Sox, a little thicker around the waist and with an extra chin. He still threw hard but didn’t rely so much on a high fastball, with a lot of the strikeouts coming via the splitter, like the one to Tony Clark at 2:10. That was a terrible Tigers team that lost 109 games and led the AL in strikeouts. That game was the 11th of 12 consecutive losses. They’d had 17- and …

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