On September 23, 1972, a little more than 11,000 fans were at Comiskey Park to see the White Sox play the Oakland Athletics in a game with significant importance for the visiting team. Leading Chicago by six games with only six left to play, they needed one more win to clinch their third straight AL Western Division.
The starting pitchers shared the number 19: A’s starter Vida Blue had that many wins, while his counterpart Wilbur Wood had that many losses, although he would tie for the most wins in the majors that season with 24. It was the knuckleball pitcher’s 49th start that season (the most in MLB), and he had hurled 372 innings to that point. His knuckler wasn’t at its best, and Wood lasted only 4.1 innings, giving up 12 hits and seven runs. The A’s went on to win 10-5 to capture the division title.
In the top of the fifth, Wood struck out the leadoff batter, A’s designated hitter Deron Johnson; but the next three players singled, and he was taken out of the game. Blue wound up winning his 20th game, and Wood losing his 20th – the first pitcher to win and lose 20 games in a season since Walter Johnson went 25-20 for the Washington Senators in 1916. But Wood punching out Johnson would be significant: it ran his innings total to 376.1, one third more than Mickey Lolich had hurled for the Detroit Tigers the year before.
