July 31, 1998: Cubs hammer four homers into the wind as rookie Kerry Wood improves to 8-0 at Wrigley Field

On game days at Wrigley Field, the first thing many players—particularly pitchers—do is check the flags flying above the iconic center-field scoreboard. When the wind blows in off Lake Michigan, as it often does early in the season, the ballpark is a pitcher’s paradise. But as the weather warms, the prevailing winds are mostly from the south or west,1 resulting in wind-blown fly balls that often land in the left-field stands or clear the park entirely and reach Waveland Avenue.

It was midsummer as the Chicago Cubs kicked off a six-game homestand against the Colorado Rockies on July 31, 1998, but the wind was blowing in as a Friday afternoon crowd of 40,490 turned out to see the Cubs continue their quest for the National League Central Division crown.

With a record of 61-48, Chicago was in second place in the division, 3½ games behind the Houston Astros but three games ahead of the New York Mets in the NL wild-card race.

The Rockies were 48-60, which put them in fourth place in the NL West, 22 games behind the San Diego Padres.

The Cubs starter was 21-year-old phenom Kerry Wood. On May 6, in just his fifth big-league start, Wood had thrilled the home fans by tying the major-league record of 20 strikeouts in a nine-inning game with a dominant one-hitter against the Houston Astros.2

Overall, Wood had a record of 10-5 with a 3.12 ERA in 19 starts. But he was particularly good at home, where he was 7-0 in nine starts with a 2.19 ERA and 97 strikeouts. He had won his last two starts, allowing one run in 14⅔ innings.

Colorado started 23-year-old right-hander Jamey Wright, who was 5-9 with a 6.28 ERA in 22 starts.

Wood allowed a leadoff single to Neifi Pérez to begin the game. After Ellis Burks forced Pérez at second, Larry Walker grounded a single to right to put two on. Wood escaped damage when Dante Bichette’s fly to short left field was caught by Cubs shortstop Jeff Blauser; assuming the ball would drop, Burks had headed to third and was doubled off second to end the inning.

Despite being the National League’s top hitting team,3 the Rockies did not get another runner to second base until the sixth inning.

Before the game, Cubs outfielder Henry Rodríguez, who had joined the team in an offseason trade with Montreal,4 had noticed the wind blowing in at 12 mph5 and offered advice to his teammates. “I told them to hit it on the ground or try for a line drive because it was going to be really hard to hit a home run,” Rodríguez said.6

Just three batters into the bottom of the first inning, he was proved wrong. After Brant Brown struck out and Mickey Morandini grounded to shortstop, Sammy Sosa launched a full-count pitch to right-center field, just clearing the wall and landing in the wire basket below the stands.7

After a torrid June, when he hit a major-league record 20 home runs in a calendar month, this blast was Sosa’s ninth in July. It was his 42nd of the season, placing him second in the majors to St. Louis’s Mark McGwire, who had 45,8 and was the 10th time in 1998 that Sosa had homered in support of Wood.9

After Mark Grace drew a walk on a full-count pitch, Rodríguez ignored his own advice when he hammered a fly to deep left-center that reached the seats to give the Cubs a 3-0 lead.

The Cubs tacked on a run in the third. Brown bounced a ball back up the middle that went off pitcher Wright’s glove for a single. Morandini also hit a shot back to Wright, this one ricocheting off his right arm to the shortstop for a single.10 Brown went to third on the play and scored Chicago’s fourth run when Sosa tapped softly into a 5-4-3 double play.

Chicago threatened to blow the game open in the sixth. With two outs, Grace and Rodríguez walked and Blauser was hit by a pitch. But Wright struck out Tyler Houston to end the inning.

When Rockies center fielder Burks reached the dugout, he exchanged hugs and handshakes with his teammates—with the Rockies out of contention, he had been dealt to the San Francisco Giants just hours ahead of the midnight trade deadline.11

“We’re trying to conquer Kerry Wood, and I get a phone call telling me I’ve got to remove my center fielder from the ballgame,” said Rockies manager Don Baylor. “It was a little bit of a distraction when Ellis came off the field and everyone was saying goodbye.”12

Manny Alexander led off the seventh inning with Chicago’s third homer of the day. Wright retired the next three batters, but his day was finished. He allowed just five hits –but also four walks—and left down 5-0.

After escaping the jam in the first, Wood cruised through the next four innings. He allowed just a two-out single to Mike Lansing in the second, and hit Walker—who was erased in Bichette’s 4-6-3 double play—to start the fourth.

In the sixth, Wright led off with a single and with two outs Walker drew a free pass. But Bichette forced Walker at second base for the final out.

After just three strikeouts in his first six innings, Wood struck out Vinny Castilla and Todd Helton to begin the seventh. Lansing singled to the right side of the infield, but with Jeff Reed at the plate Lansing was thrown out attempting to advance to second on a pitch in the dirt.

Colorado threatened to get back in the game in the eighth but settled for one run. Wood walked Reed and struck out pinch-hitter John Vander Wal, but walked Pérez and Curtis Goodwin to fill the bases.

Veteran left-hander Terry Mulholland relieved Wood and allowed Walker’s sacrifice fly to make the score 5-1. Bichette lined to deep right for the third out.

The Cubs padded their lead in the bottom of the inning against Rockies reliever Mike DeJean. With one out, Grace walked, and Rodriguez smacked his second homer of the game.

“Before we went to the cage, I told the guys, ‘Hit the ball on the ground because I don’t think anyone is going to hit a home run today.’” Rodríguez said after the game. “Then Sammy hit one opposite field. I followed with one opposite field. With the flags blowing in, I didn’t think anyone could do it. Then when Manny hit a home run, I said, ‘Well, maybe we have a chance for five or six.’”13

Noting the nationalities of the Cubs who had homered, Rodriguez quipped, “Dominicans 4, Rockies 0.”14

After Sosa’s blast, Blauser walked. With two outs, Alexander also walked, and Mulholland grounded a single to center to score Blauser. Dave Veres replaced DeJean and walked Brown to load the bases.

Morandini bounced a single to center; Alexander scored but Mulholland was thrown out at the plate to end the inning. Chicago’s lead had ballooned to 9-1.

In the ninth, Mulholland worked around a walk and a single to record his third save of the season.15

Although he struck out just six batters,16 Wood was pleased with his outing. “I’m not disappointed that I didn’t have a lot of strikeouts,” he said. “It wasn’t a game where I had my best stuff. But when I don’t, I’ve still got to be able to pitch with it.”17

“Maybe he didn’t have his best stuff today, but he still pitched well,” said Bichette. “I went zero-for-four.”18

“It was a freak deal with the wind,” commented Wright. “It didn’t help me today. With the wind blowing in, you’d think it would be a good day to pitch. All three, I didn’t think they were going out.”19

The victory improved Wood’s record at home to 8-0, making him the first Cubs pitcher to win at least eight straight home games since Kevin Foster won nine in a row20 over the 1995 and 1996 seasons.21 Wood’s streak ended in his next start when he allowed seven runs in a loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“We still have August and September left and I have never pitched in September before,” Wood said. “So I might have to back off a little bit later on in August so I have something left for September.”22

But Wood never pitched in September. Battling fatigue and elbow issues, he made his last start on August 31.23 He finished 13-6 with a 3.40 ERA and edged out Colorado’s Helton for the NL Rookie of the Year Award.24 The following spring Wood tore his ulnar collateral ligament and missed the entire 1999 season.

Sosa ended the season with 66 homers—the second most ever in a major-league season—but behind McGwire, who hit a record 70. Rodriguez finished with 31. Their 97 combined home runs set a record for Cubs teammates, bettering the 93 hit by Hack Wilson (56) and Gabby Hartnett (37) in 1930.25

Despite the loss of Wood, Chicago tied the San Francisco Giants for the NL wild card with a record of 89-73. In a one-game playoff, they defeated the Giants, 5-3, to advance to the NLDS,26 in which they were swept in three games by the Atlanta Braves.

Author’s Note

This game was the 10th of 10 games the author and his father attended as part of a Jay Buckley baseball tour. The 10-day trip included games in Milwaukee (doubleheader), Pittsburgh, Baltimore, New York (Yankees), Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Detroit, and Chicago (Cubs). Also included was a day at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, a tailgate party at County Stadium, and free time for shopping and sightseeing in Baltimore, Boston, Montreal, and Toronto. This was the author’s fourth game at Wrigley Field—and the Cubs had won all four.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Mark Richard and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the references cited in the Notes, the author consulted data from Baseball-Reference and Retrosheet:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN199807310.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1998/B07310CHN1998.htm

The author also consulted the WGN broadcast of the game, which can be seen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU3uTIdj67c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhUTxCVmsfs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKFWym9gL2o

Notes

1 Tony Briscoe, “Wrigley’s Game-Altering Winds Part of Charm, Frustration of Postseason,” Chicago Tribune, October 13, 2016, https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/cubs/ct-cubs-wrigley-field-wind-met-20161012-story.html.

2 The only hit was an infield single to third base by Ricky Gutierrez to lead off the third inning.

3 Paul Sullivan, “Sosa, Rodriguez Turn on the Power,” Chicago Tribune, August 1, 1998: Section 3, 1.

4 In his previous two seasons with the Expos, Rodriguez hit 62 homers and drove in 186 runs. He was traded for pitcher Miguel Batista.

5 Associated Press, “Sosa Hits His 42nd Homer in Cub Win,” Kenosha (Wisconsin) News, August 1, 1998: C5.

6 “Sosa Hits His 42nd Homer in Cub Win.”

7 “Sosa Hits His 42nd Homer in Cub Win.”

8 Sosa and McGwire were the first players to reach 42 homers before August 1. The three other players with 41 homers through July are Babe Ruth (1928), Jimmie Foxx (1932), and Ken Griffey Jr (1998). Griffey had an opportunity to join Sosa and McGwire but went 0-for-4 on the night of this game. He would not hit his 42nd homer until August 15. Sullivan.

9 Associated Press, “Sosa Hits His 42nd Homer in Cub Win.”

10 Ray McNulty, “Wood, Cubs Cruise Past the Rockies,” Appletown (Wisconsin) Post Crescent, August 1, 1998: C3.

11 The Rockies received Darryl Hamilton, Jim Stoops, and a player to be named later. On August 18 the Giants sent minor-leaguer Jason Brester to Colorado to complete the trade.

12 McNulty.

13 Sullivan.

14 Sullivan.

15 Mulholland’s career lasted through the 2006 season. He had five career saves in 685 games.

16 Wood now had 179 strikeouts in 128⅔ innings. He finished with 233, well short of the Cubs record of 274 set by Fergie Jenkins in 1970.

17 McNulty.

18 McNulty.

19 Associated Press, “Sosa Hits His 42nd Homer in Cub Win.”

20 Foster had a record of just 32-28 during his time with the Cubs from 1994 to 1998. He was 32-30 for his career.

21 Bill Lee won a team-record 15 straight games at Wrigley Field over the 1935 and 1936 seasons. Sullivan.

22 Sullivan.

23 Jake Misener, “Chicago Cubs: Kerry Wood’s 1998 Rookie Season Was an Unforgettable Ride,” CubbiesCrib, January 30, 2022, https://cubbiescrib.com/2022/01/30/chicago-cubs-kerry-wood-1998-rookie-season-unforgettable-ride/.

24 Helton batted .315 with 25 home runs and 97 RBIs.

25 Sullivan. The following season the duo combined for 89 home runs.

26 The extra game counted as a regular-season game. Sosa entered with 158 RBIs in 158 games. Despite collecting two hits, he did not drive in a run and finished just short of averaging one RBI per game played.