May 14, 2005, 1:38AM
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Several times during this season of silent bats, Roger Clemens has said he has gone through stretches like this in his career. You could look it up, he said.
Well, the folks at Elias Sports Bureau looked and looked and looked before finding the last time a pitcher made three consecutive starts where the score was 0-0 after nine innings. Clemens did it from April 13-23 this season, and the Astros subsequently lost all three games 1-0 in extra innings.
It turns out that every 95 years, something like this happens. According to Elias, Doc Scanlan made three starts for the Brooklyn Superbas from July 30 through Aug. 13, 1910 that were 0-0 after nine innings. Brooklyn lost all three games in extra innings.
Clemens will make his eighth start of the season tonight against San Francisco. He is 2-1 with a 1.10 ERA, a number that brings to mind the 1.12 mark Bob Gibson posted for the 1968 St. Louis Cardinals. For the record, Gibson was 22-9.
In Clemens' seven starts, the Astros have scored 11 runs, averaging 1.6 runs per game. Clemens, who is hitting .357, drove in two of those runs in a 3-2 victory over Cincinnati on April 8. His only other win was 2-1 over Florida on Monday.
A year ago, everything Clemens touched turned to gold at the start of the season. In seven starts, he was 7-0 with a sparkling 1.99 ERA. But he benefited from 47 runs, an average of 6.7 per game.
There are several factors for this season's lack of run support, one being the absence of outfielder Lance Berkman, who started the season on the disabled list and has played in only one game Clemens has pitched. A year ago, he hit .520 with three homers and nine RBIs in Clemens' first seven starts.
Then again, it isn't as if the Astros are knocking down the fences for other pitchers.
The Astros have been shut out six times and rank last in the National League in batting average, hits, home runs and slugging percentage. Still, they have averaged 4.2 runs in the 28 games not started by Clemens.
Andy Pettitte, Clemens' teammate with the New York Yankees from 1999-2003 and the past two years in Houston, thinks there's another reason for Clemens' lack of support.
"I faced Roger when I first came up, and there's no doubt that you get a little more pumped," Pettitte said. "You know who you're facing and you know that you're not going to get a whole lot of run support that night, so you maybe turn it up a notch yourself."
The last time an Astros pitcher went through something like this was in 1987, when Nolan Ryan led the majors with 270 strikeouts and tied for the ERA title at 2.76. But Ryan's record was 8-16, and he endured an eight-game losing streak in which the club scored a total of 13 runs, getting one run four times and no runs once.
"I remember that after a while, there were a few times when Nolan would get a little uptight in the dugout when we weren't scoring," said former Astros catcher Alan Ashby. "You try so hard because you don't want to waste another great outing, but it almost becomes counterproductive."
Once during the stretch of non-support, teammate Danny Darwin walked behind Ryan's locker while the pitcher was doing an interview and said loudly: "Quit your complaining. Go out and pitch a shutout and hit a home run next time."
Words to the wise, whether in 1910, 1987 or 2005.
neil.hohlfeld@chron.com
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