It’s best not to read too much into one game, but it’s understandable if Jordan Wicks fueled a few dreams in the Cubs’ 10-6 victory Saturday against the Pirates.
In his five-inning, one-run, two-hit big-league debut, Wicks struck out nine Pirates and walked one. Only two Cubs have struck out more in their first game: Mark Prior with 10 in six innings against the Pirates in 2002 and Thomas Diamond with 10 in six innings against the Brewers in 2010.
Dutch Reuther had nine in 1917, Juan Cruz eight in 2001, Kerry Wood seven in 1998 and Kyle Hendricks seven in 2014.
Wicks posted a game score of 67, which is tied for the Cubs’ 17th-best this season. Game score is a measure of starting-pitcher dominance that starts with 50, adds points for outs, innings and strikeouts and subtracts points for hits, walks and hit batters.
The Cubs’ highest game score by a pitcher making his big-league debut was 88 by Alex Hardy, who won a 1-0 complete-game two-hitter against Brooklyn in 1902. Among expansion-era pitchers (starting in 1961), the highest was 85 by Jeff Pico in a 4-0, four-hit shutout of the Reds in 1988.
Wicks’ game score is the 11th-best by a Cub in his first major-league game and the fifth-best in the expansion era. Post-1961 scores ahead of Wicks, in addition to Pico’s, were Shawn Boskie’s 78 in 1990, Amaury Telemaco’s 77 in 1996 and Ryan O’Malley’s 68 in 2006.
All ahead of Wicks pitched more innings, with seven nine-inning outings among the 10. One more inning would have added a point for each out and two for completing an inning after the fourth. Without worrying about extra strikeouts, hits or walks, that would have raised Wicks’ score to 72 and moved him to seventh on the list of Cubs debutantes.
By strikeouts or game scores, the lists are a mixed bag. In 2003, a season after his debut, Prior was 18-6 with a 2.43 ERA and finished third in National League Cy Young voting. But injuries derailed him, and a 1-6 record in 2006 closed a 42-29 career.
Wood was the NL Rookie of the Year in 1998, when he went 13-6 with a 3.40 ERA. He posted the highest nine-inning game score in history with a 105 in a 20-strikeout one-hitter against the Astros that May. But he also was plagued by injuries and started his last game in 2006. He held on through 2012 and finished 86-75 with 63 saves.
Hendricks (92-68, 3.48 ERA) has had the most sustained success as a starter among the expansion-era Cubs debut leaders.
Other career records among Cubs debut leaders are Diamond, 1-3; Pico, 13-12, five saves; Boskie, 49-63, one save; Telemaco, 23-35; and Cruz, 38-36, six saves.
The fate of others is not Wicks’ destiny. He’s a highly touted prospect with a lot going for him. Still, first-game promise is never a guarantee of more to come.
