Yankees 5
Cardinals 2
Like everything else in his life, Roger Clemens had to work for his 300th victory last night at Yankee Stadium.
On a rainy Bronx evening against a strange opponent, Clemens grunted, broke a sweat, glared at plate umpire Gary Darling and was fantastic in the clutch.
And in his fourth stab at joining the 300-Win Club, he won, beating the Cardinals, 5-2, in front of 55,214 soggy Rocket boosters.
Not only did Clemens become the 21st pitcher to win 300 games, he also fanned 10 to join the 4,000-Strikeout Fraternity.
Clemens is the third pitcher to notch 4,000 or more Ks. Clemens fanned the side in the first and reached 4,000 by whiffing Edgar Renteria in the second.
Countless hours in weight rooms across America and thousand of miles run on city streets and country roads prepared Clemens’ 40-year-old body for the moment. Even the remains of an upper respiratory infection didn’t derail Clemens.
His head was taken care of by meticulous notes on hitters he keeps and by the fact that Clemens is never unprepared.
Clemens went 62/3 innings, allowing six hits and two runs. The Cardinals were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position against him. Clemens’ first win since beating the Red Sox in Boston on May 21 raised his record to 7-4. It was also his initial victory at home, where he is 1-3 in six starts.
Mariano Rivera recorded the final three outs to post his eighth save.
“I want to be out there,” Rivera said.
Hideki Matsui, Ruben Sierra and Raul Mondesi homered for the Yankees, who won their second straight and have copped three of four. Mondesi’s two-run homer off Jason Simontacchi in the seventh stretched the Yankees’ lead from 3-2 to 5-2. Simontacchi, who gave up all three dingers, fell to 4-4.
Clemens exited with a 3-2 lead with two outs and the bases empty in the seventh.
Lifting Clemens for Chris Hammond led to Joe Torre’s most severe booing as the Yankees manager. Torre was heavily booed on his way to the mound. After Clemens received a huge standing ovation on the way to the dugout, Torre strolled to the same dugout and was showered with more boos.
When J.D. Drew bunted his way on and Albert Pujols singled to right the crowd became restless, especially with Jim Edmonds at the plate. Edmonds was hitting .205 against lefties but the crowd didn’t care. Suddenly, St. Joe was the devil. Torre didn’t have to answer the second-guessers as to why he brought Hammond in because Edmonds hit a weak grounder to Alfonso Soriano for the final out.
It was the second time this season Clemens reached double digit in whiffs and the 104th in his career. Only Nolan Ryan (215) and Randy Johnson (188) have more double-digit K-games than Clemens.
It didn’t take long for a big moment to surface after Clemens fanned the side in the first. That put him one whiff away from becoming the third pitcher ever to strike out 4,000.
After Jim Edmonds crushed a 1-0 pitch over the left-field wall for an opposite-field homer leading off the second that tied the score, 1-0, Clemens gave up a 2-2 double to Scott Rolen. Clemens had to battle Darling’s postage stamp-sized strike zone working to Edgar Renteria. Clemens jumped ahead, 0-2, and thought he had Renteria struck out on each of the next two pitches that Darling called balls. With the count full, Clemens reached the milestone.
Catcher Jorge Posada went to the mound shook Clemens hand, patted him on the chest and took the ball from him as the scoreboard flashed, “4,000” and the large crowd gave Clemens a standing ovation.
