Kerry Wood's 20-strikeout game is the greatest pitching performance ever

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The 1998 Cubs season was special in so many ways.

Obviously the historic Sammy Sosa-Mark McGwire home run chase was a huge part of that, but the team's foray into the playoffs also gave Cubs fans a lot to cheer about.

And then, of course, there was also the greatest pitching performance in the history of the game.
 
Sunday marks the 20th anniversary of Kerry Wood's 20-strikeout game, which he watched in our NBC Sports Chicago studio recently - the first time he ever saw the game broadcast from start to finish. 

It wasn't a perfect game or no-hitter, though it probably should've been at least the latter - there are plenty of Kevin Orie Truthers out there who think the then-Cubs third basemean should've been charged with an error on the lone hit by Ricky Gutierrez.

Since 1908, no pitcher has put up a higher Game Score than Wood's 105 from that day (among games that lasted only 9 innings). Game Score is a metric used to determine the overall effectiveness of a starting pitcher. A Game Score of 100 is incredible and has only happened 15 times in a 9-inning game in Major League Baseball history.

Here's how Game Score is calculated:

Start with 50 points. Add 1 point for each out recorded, (or 3 points per inning). Add 2 points for each inning completed after the 4th. Add 1 point for each strikeout. Subtract 2 points for each hit allowed. Subtract 4 points for each earned run allowed. Subtract 2 points for each unearned run allowed. Subtract 1 point for each walk.

Wood's performance came in over perfect games from Max Scherzer (2015), Clayton Kershaw (2014), Matt Cain (2012) and Sandy Koufax (1965), among others.

Curiously, Wood very nearly had some competition Friday night and the Astros were again involved. Houston pitcher Gerrit Cole turned in a 100 Game Score after striking out 16 Diamondbacks in a 1-hit shuout.

Current Cubs closer Brandon Morrow also came very near to Wood's outing with a 17-strikeout 1-hitter against Joe Maddon's Tampa Bay Rays on Aug. 8, 2010.

The most incredible part about Wood's history-making outing in 1998 is that he was a 20-year-old rookie at the time. 

"I got to watch it on the big screen once and I thought, my god what a slider that was," Maddon said during last week's homestand. "It's incredible. Wow. I mean, I don't know that people really understand how good he actually was. That stuff there is cartoonish. It's that incredibly different. It's understandable why he's able to do that. 

"Great guy on top of it; I've gotten to know him the last couple years. My god, I mean, who's better than him? What stands out [about the 20 K performance] is that's a really difficult thing to do, but when you watch those pitches and how they were moving on that day, it's understandable. At that age, to have that kind of ability, he was sort of a prodigy."

He also did this all against an Astros lineup that finished with 102 wins and led the National League in runs scored.

Houston's starting 9 that day and their OPS at the time:

1. Craig Biggio - .856
2. Derek Bell - 1.062
3. Jeff Bagwell - .812
4. Jack Howell - .549
5. Moises Alou - .972
6. Dave Clark - .337
7. Ricky Gutierrez - .851
8. Brad Ausmus - .565
9. Shane Reynolds (pitcher)

Wood also remarkably did not walk a batter - the only outing he had in 1998 where he did not dole out at least one free pass. He finished that year with 85 walks in 166.2 innings.

He said he didn't throw a strike at all in warm-ups and then threw the first pitch off the mask of home plate umpire Jerry Meals.

Check out the in-depth look at the greatest-pitched game in baseball history above.

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