in the year, he completed seven of his final eight games, three of which were shutouts. On September 12, he won 20 games in a season for the first time with a nine-strikeout, five-hit shutout performance against the Royals. In his final start of the year, against the Brewers on September 29, he allowed one unearned run in a complete game and struck out 10 hitters in a 2–1 victory. As a result of the increased frequency of his starts, Wood started 42 games and pitched 334 innings, second only in the AL to Mickey Lolich (45 and 376, respectively). He ranked among the AL leaders with 22 wins (third, behind Lolich's 25 and Vida Blue's 24), a 1.91 ERA (second only to Blue's 1.82), 210 strikeouts (fifth), 22 complete games (third, behind Lolich's 29 and Blue's 24), and seven shutouts (tied with Mel Stottlemyre for second behind Blue's eight). His 189 adjusted ERA+ led the AL, and his Wins Above Replacement (WAR) of 11.5 is the fourth-highest for pitchers since 1920, topped only by Dwight Gooden's 11.9 (1985), Steve Carlton's 11.7 (1972), and Roger Clemens's 11.6 (1997). He finished ninth in AL MVP voting and third in AL Cy Young Award voting (behind Blue and Lolich). With 22 wins, Wood set a major league record (tied in 2001 by Matt Morris) for most wins by a pitcher who had made at least 10 appearances the previous season without starting a game. "I feel no difference, physically or mentally, between two and three days of rest,” Wood said about pitching more often. “Everybody thinks I should be more tired, but I am not." Still starting about every three games in 1972, Wood allowed the White Sox to mainly use a three-man rotation, with Stan Bahnsen and Tom Bradley starting every fourth day and other hurlers making spot starts in between. He was the Opening Day starter for Chicago in 1972, the first of five years in a row he would make the Opening Day start for the White Sox. He took a no decision despite allowing one run in nine innings, but he followed that up with shutouts in his next three games. On June 13, he threw another shutout, holding the Yankees to three hits in a 2–0 victory. He limited the Athletics to seven hits in a shutout on June 29, outpitching Hunter in a 4–0 victory. At