Bronx, N.Y., July 18, 2007 — Roger Clemens battled the superb Sean Marcum and the Toronto Blue Jays in a steamy Yankee Stadium Wednesday night. But fans who were hoping to see The Rocket back to the form he exhibited in back-to-back eight-inning gems before stumbling in Tampa Bay last weekend were in for a very different kind of performance.
Roger struck out leftfielder Reed Johnson to start the game, but Alex Rios lofted a mammoth drive to deep left center that barely beat the game Melky Cabrera to the wall, and the Toronto rightfielder cruised into third with a one-out triple. It was the first of four hits by Rios, who looked to be unstoppable this night, at least until he faced Mariano Rivera as the potential tying run seven frames later.
Clemens was stubborn, though, and he looked to have escaped the early threat after a Vernon Wells popup to first. But Troy Glaus lined a single in front of Johnny Damon, who played left with Hideki Matsui DH’ing, for a 1-0 Toronto lead. For six torturous innings that tiny lead looked to be a height the Yanks would not be able to scale.
Marcum featured a fastball that topped out at 90, but he mixed it well with low-eighties sliders and changes, and the occasional 70-mph curve that had Yankee bats flailing. His only failing was that he did not throw enough strikes, and the 3-2 count he battled Derek Jeter to leading off the pivotal bottom of he seventh was his seventh three-ball count. He had walked two to that point, and allowed two singles, one of which was a Jeter grounder to a vacated second base position on a hit and run in the third.
It was not a case of Yankee bats smacking liners and ground balls at fielders. A long Jorge Posada second-inning drive to left center was the only hard hit ball through six. And making matters worse for the Yanks, three of the four baserunners they were lucky to manage were promptly removed on double plays. Their lone chance was after a leadoff Damon fourth-inning walk, with Damon speeding around to third when Jeter grounded toward the vacated second base hole. With Royce Clayton playing short Tuesday night, the Jays guessed correctly that Jeter would go to right, and they retired him in a similar situation. But Jeter bounced to Wednesday shortstop John McDonald his first time up, so the Jays played the percentages with the righty Yankee Captain at the plate and had second baseman Aaron Hill cover when Damon took off.
It all became academic pretty quickly, and painfully so to the 50,000 rooting the Yanks on. Usual third place hitter Bobby Abreu has struggled much of the year, but after a few effective offensive games playing at the bottom of the order, Manager Joe Torre has him back hitting third for this series. It is either the genius or the stubbornness of Torre that he believes he needs his players to succeed at the roles he has assigned them, and he is apparently convinced that the having-a-bad-year rightfielder gives the Yanks their best chance when he hits third. But now, with first and third and no one out, Abreu made Joe look more stubborn than genius when he swung and missed badly, then popped out to short. Marcum fell to 3-0 against obvious team and League MVP Alex Rodriguez, and A-Rod curiously swung at and missed a low outside slider. But he hit the next pitch sharply, right to second for Toronto’s third double play in as many innings to kill the home team’s best chance.
That was it. Damon helped get Marcum in a little pitch count trouble by leading off the first with an 11-pitch at bat, but he fouled out. Rodriguez led off the second by walking on four straight, and Robbie Cano singled to start the third. Each was promptly removed on dp’s. And following the near miss in the fourth, the Blue Jays righty got the next six outs on 20 pitches.
Rocket Roger Clemens, meanwhile, was having a very different night. Fans breathed a little easier when he struck out Jason Phillips swinging to close a one-two-three second. But he allowed two baserunners in each of the next four innings. He used his third and last strike out to escape the third, and coaxed a dp of his own to close the fourth, but when push came to shove, he simply tightened his belt and refused to allow another run.
Marcum left one Yankee on base through six, Clemens left eight. Roger did not allow walks to add to his troubles with Jays batters. A one-out sixth-inning free pass to Lyle Overbay was his only blemish of that sort, and he surrendered nine hits through six. He coaxed five swings and misses to notch his three K’s early; the Jays swung and missed just one more time in the next 48 tosses. Clemens threw 17 of 27 first pitch strikes, and his 63/36 strikes/balls ratio was how you draw it up pre-game. But despite Roger’s finest efforts, he left having thrown 99 pitches through six, and he was still down 1-0.
With the team running out of time, the Yankee pen failed to learn from the control Clemens had displayed through six. Scott Proctor came out for the seventh, and promptly walked Johnson leading off, and Rios followed with his fourth hit, a single up the middle. Scott recovered to get a popup and a strike out, but then he walked DH Frank Thomas to load the bases. Torre, who has warmed up struggling southpaw specialist Mike Myers several times in the last few weeks, only not to use him, called for him this time, and he calmly retired lefty hitter Overbay on a grounder to first to escape the threat.
In that same six innings Clemens had thrown, Marcum had faced 19 batters to Roger’s 27, managing 10 first-pitch strikes. But needing to get something going and to get the dominant righty out of the game, the Yanks were fortunate that the clutch Jeter led off the home seventh. He battled Marcum to 3-2, then lined a clean single to right. With one down in the top of the sixth, Abreu had proven his worth defensively, easily holding a Jays runner at third on a fly to medium right. Now he rewarded Torre’s faith in his hitting, singling sharply past first base as the speedy Yankee shortstop zoomed to third on a hit-and-run. Rodriguez followed with a hard swing and a miss, then took two off the plate. Alex’s dominant year has been a running theme in the Bronx, and he continued the trend by then doubling deep to left center to give the Yanks a 2-1 lead.
Lefty Scott Downs replaced the suddenly shell-shocked Marcum, but Matsui singled to left with A-Rod holding at third. It was hard to avoid visions of the failed fourth-inning uprising when Jorge Posada struck out, but the usually over-aggressive Cano walked to load them up, and Brandon League replaced Downs. Andy Phillips has been hot through this recent Yankee surge; he barely noticed that the righty submariner is tough to pick up, as he singled to left for two more runs on the first pitch.
Brian Bruney took the mound to pitch the top of the eighth, but he walked the leadoff guy too, and lefty Ron Villone came on to walk pinch hitter Matt Stairs with one down. Joe Torre celebrated his 67th birthday this day. He wasn’t about to let his middle relief ruin his special day, or to waste Roger’s hard work either. Mariano Rivera came on for the five-out save, and the Jays were thwarted. He got Johnson on a fielder’s choice that could have been a double play, but when the Yanks failed to turn it, the 4-for-4 Rios came to bat as the tying run. Mo punched him out swinging on five pitches.
With the Marcum yoke finally removed, the Yanks added two on four singles in the bottom of the eighth for the 6-1 final score, with Posada and Cano getting the rbi’s. Robbie joined Jeter, Abreu, and Matsui with two hits, and Alex scored twice and knocked in the pivotal two. Seven Yanks had hits with Damon and Cabrera missing out, but Johnny managed the nice leadoff at bat in the first, and Cabrera was robbed on a liner to the left field corner to end the seventh.
The early offensive struggles were obviously more Marcum’s fine pitching than poor Yankee hitting, as the two rallies against a not-bad bullpen prove. So the only negative was the work of the Yankee pen aside from Rivera, who got the save, and Myers, who racked up a win for his one-batter outing. Proctor, Bruney, and Villone gave up four walks among them while notching just three outs, a sad stat on July 18, the day back in 1913 when Hall of Famer Christy Matthewson allowed one free pass after 68 consecutive walk-free innings.
July 18 has also been a day with some fine and not so fine recent Yankee Stadium history. David Cone threw his Perfect Game against the Montreal Expos (who play as the Washington Nationals now) on Yogi Berra Day on this date in 1999. Ex-White Sox hurler Jack McDowell made some very different history on the Stadium mound four years earlier. On being removed to a chorus of “boo’s” after his ex-mates from Chicago pounded him for 13 hits in an 11-4 White Sox win on a day when they would sweep two from the [finally] playoff-bound Yanks, Jack responded to the boisterous crowd by “flipping them the bird.”
The significance of this come-from-behind 6-1 Yankee win was heightened because the Red Sox were losing to Kansas City in Boston at the same time. The Yanks are coming, and nobody knows it better than the Red Sox and their fans. Octavio Dotel, whom the Yanks gambled $2,000,000 on last year as he recovered from arm surgery, finally made a payment on that investment when he turned in the save for the Royals.
And in other July 18 sports history, 37-year-old Jersey Joe Walcott became the oldest heavyweight boxer to win that sport’s crown when he knocked out Ezzard Charles on this day in 1951. The soon to be 45-year-old Mr. Clemens waged a heavyweight battle of his own Wednesday night. But baseball is a team sport. So even though Roger wasn’t around to get the win, he and his team emerged bloodied but not beaten on this day.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!