Clemens leaves Bucs impressed, appreciative

BY BOB HERZOG
bob.herzog@newsday.com

June 10, 2007

As far as the Pirates were concerned, their battle with Roger Clemens yesterday was a split decision.

"I certainly didn't see any rust on his split-finger," said rightfielder Ryan Doumit, who doubled to right in his first at-bat against The Rocket but struck out the next two times on splitters clocked at 86 and 84 mph.

"His splitty was working. That splitty comes out like a fastball and dives down in the dirt," said shortstop Jack Wilson, who actually hit Clemens hard in his two at-bats, lining out to left and doubling to right-center to drive in two runs that tied the game at 3 in the fourth inning. "He's one of those guys that if one pitch isn't at full strength, he'll come up with a couple of others."

Clemens showed the Pirates a new wrinkle - a slow curve in the low 70s that he used to try to get ahead early in the count. "We hadn't seen that one," Wilson said. "He mixed it in and then had some punch-out pitches - the back-door slider to lefties and of course the hard fastball."

Pittsburgh hitters struck out seven times against Clemens, five times on splitters. In the first inning, Clemens got swinging strikeouts of Jason Bay and Xavier Nady, the Pirates' Nos. 3 and 5 hitters. He rang up No. 4 hitter Adam LaRoche in the fourth, catching the former Braves first baseman looking at a 90-mph fastball.

Clemens cranked it up to 92 a couple of times, but clearly his fastball wasn't as overpowering as his will. "I don't think his fastball was where he wanted it to be, but the guy is 44 years old," Doumit said. "We've seen him a lot. He used to be in our division . We knew his game plan. But he's a cream-of-the-crop pitcher and he pitched well."

Wilson said the Pirates enjoyed the atmosphere of a jammed Yankee Stadium and were more pumped up for this game than they are for games against NL Central opponents. "It's fun any time you face Clemens," Wilson said. "He's a Hall of Famer, and any time you match up against a Hall of Famer, you've got to bring your 'A' game to see how you are against the best. Basically, the best that's ever been."

The Pirates showed patience, with several long at-bats that drove The Rocket's pitch count to 108 over six innings. "I'm not going to sit here and over-analyze Roger's performance," Pirates manager Jim Tracy said. "But we took the type of at-bats that you like to see against him. We didn't give him too many easy outs. To his credit, when he needed to get a couple of outs, he got them."

Before the game, Tracy offered a more pointed tribute to Clemens. "What isn't there to appreciate about him," Tracy asked rhetorically, "if you've ever been involved in a game with him as a player, a coach or a manager and watched the way this guy performs, the competitive nature of the individual and the determination that he has to win every time that he goes out there. If you can't respect that, you really shouldn't be in the game.

"There's a reason why this club [the Yankees] wanted him at age 44, 45. There's something about him," Tracy added. "There's something about him that reeks of winning. He's one of the best that's ever done it. You don't win 348 by accident."

Make that 349.