Special K

Fans counting the strikeouts at Wrigley Field

In one of the most dominant performances in history, Cubs rookie right-hander Kerry Wood strikes out 20 batters during Chicago’s 2-0 victory over the Astros 27 years ago today before a Wednesday afternoon crowd of 15,758 at Wrigley Field.

Wood finishes the day allowing just one hit – an infield single by Ricky Gutierrez leading off the top of the third inning.

Wood also drills future Hall of Famer Craig Biggio with a pitch in the sixth inning, but walks none and strikes out every Astro at least once.

He saves his best for Houston’s 3-4-5 hitters – future Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell, Jack Howell and Moises Alou – who strike out nine times in nine at-bats.

Wood finishes the game with 122 pitches, 84 of which are strikes.

Kerry Wood as a rookie in 1998

The career performance also comes in just the fifth game of Wood’s young career.

Surely, more great moments will follow the 20-year-old Wood on what equally was just as sure would be a Hall of Fame career, especially after Wood becomes the National League’s 1998 rookie of the year after winning 13 games.

“He reminded me of the first time I saw Nolan Ryan,” Astros manager Larry Dierker says after Wood’s magnificent game in 1998. “He’s going to pitch a no-hitter and maybe a few no-hitters. His stuff is the real item.”

Arm woes, though, cost Wood all of the 1989 season, and injuries and inconsistencies follow him into the new millennium.

By 2005, the once-dominant starter is pitching out of the bullpen, where Wood saves 54 games for the Cubs over the 2008 and ’09 seasons.

By the middle of May in 2012, Wood’s career is over.

The final totals: 86 wins and 75 losses; 178 starts and 268 relief appearances; and an outstanding 10.3 strikeouts per nine innings and a good-by-today-standards 3.67 earned-run average.

Alas, those final totals also include 16 trips to the injured list.

Wood’s first year on the Hall of Fame ballot comes in 2018, which also is his last year on the ballot as he receives only two votes and drops off the ballot for subsequent elections.