After turning the baseball world on its head by striking out 20 batters in only his fifth major league start, there was some concern the quest for more strikeouts would affect the way Kerry Wood approached Monday night’s outing at Bank One Ballpark.
“I hope so,” catcher Scott Servais said. “If he pitches like he did the last time, I hope he’s affected a lot by it.”
Through seven innings, Wood had 13 strikeouts, setting a major league record for most strikeouts (33) in consecutive games. He held Arizona to one run on five hits and a walk. He also drove in two runs with singles in the second and seventh innings to help himself to a 4-1 lead.
Wood entered Monday night’s inaugural Cubs-Diamondbacks game needing 13 strikeouts to break the mark of 32 set by Luis Tiant in 1968 and tied by Nolan Ryan (1974), Dwight Gooden (1984) and Randy Johnson (1997).
Through seven innings, Wood got the record 13 strikeouts and held Arizona to one run on five hits and a walk. He also drove in two runs with singles in the second and seventh innings to help himself to a 4-1 lead.
The atmosphere was vastly different for Wood in his first start since making history May 6 at Wrigley Field. He went from pitching in an 84-year-old ballpark without any replay boards to pitching in a brand-new stadium with a separate scoreboard showing the speed of every one of his pitches.
So would Wood being gunning for strikeouts against the team which leads the National League in striking out?
“I don’t think so,” Servais said. “I think he’s in a good enough frame of mind that he knows it’s baseball and guys are going to put the bat on the ball. That was one of those games where he had it rolling.”
