May 13, 2015: Corey Kluber
Well this one is easy. After a painfully slow start to 2015 for the reigning AL Cy Young winner, Corey Kluber dismantled the Cardinals on Wednesday. Coming in, he was 0-5 with a 5.04 ERA, and it was getting worse. After a solid first three starts, he had a 7.43 ERA in his last 4 and had given up a whopping 38 hits in just 23 innings. Wednesday, however, Kluber led the Indians to a 2-0 win by going 8 innings, giving up just 1 hit, and striking out 18. That was just the second time in MLB history anyone had 18 K’s, 1 hit, and no walks allowed, the other being the Kerry Wood 20 strikeout game from 1998. By Bill James’ ‘Game Score’ metric, it was tied for the 20th best game ever for a pitcher that went 9 or fewer innings (Kerry Wood’s is first), and the greatest game ever by a pitcher who went less than 9 innings.