Roger Clemens threw himself into the job last night as he tried to keep the Red Sox in the American League wild-card race, no matter how remote the odds.
The trouble was, just about everything Clemens threw at the Chicago White Sox seemed to be of the same velocity - 90-92 m.p.h. And in this case, fast didn't necessarily mean effective as Clemens struggled through seven innings, though he earned the 9-5 victory.
With an extra day's rest, Clemens tossed 115 pitches, 70 for strikes. But the White Sox reached him for seven hits and five runs, and he issued four walks while striking out four.
In gaining his fifth win in six decisions spanning seven starts, Clemens didn't make things easy for himself, often pitching from behind in the count.
``It seemed like everything was hard,'' he said. ``My fastball was hard. My slider was hard and my forkball was hard. They were very patient hitters. Everyone concentrates on working down in the zone and they still have four or five hitters that still have that [former hitting coach Walter] Hriniak swing, and I'm sure that Buck [present hitting coach Bill Buckner] teaches them to try to zone down hard. They've got some good hitters that do that, so when you throw down in there ...
``I did wind up and throw some balls out of.?? anger. It was extremely hard, and [catcher Bill Haselman] came out and basically said I was overthrowing. But I was trying to get ahead, and hopefully, they'd swing at a bad ball, but it was very difficult. But you knew these guys were going to battle you to the end. I've been in a situation where I've had a couple of dogfights with them, where they've been out of it, four or five runs, and they come back.''
Chicago scored in the first inning when Dave Martinez singled to center and Harold Baines brought him in with a two-out double off the wall. ``I wanted to go at them and set the tempo early, and they come out and score a run in the first,'' Clemens said. ``I've done that in the past and I've been OK with it.''
He faltered again in the fourth when Frank Thomas ripped an 0-1 pitch into the left-field screen leading off, Baines singled, two walks loaded the bases and another run scored on a fielder's choice. The difference was that Clemens carried a 6-1 cushion to the mound in that inning, and with the Red Sox pounding away at Chicago pitching, he survived the lapses.
He surrendered two more runs in the and fifth, one on a triple to Tony Phillips and another on Thomas' double-play grounder, but the Red Sox already had restored his five-run breathing room, so the damage wasn't fatal.
``I had the extra day and I felt really well. I felt extremely strong,'' Clemens said. ``I just had to make sure I loosened up well because I threw a lot of balls out of anger, upset over certain things. It's ironic. I fight and scratch and claw to get runs like that all year and the guys put them up for you and I make it a battle for them. So that's a little disheartening. Obviously, I'm glad we won. I'm just disappointed with the way I performed. I made it tougher on the guys than it should have been.''
This story ran on page g6 of the Boston Globe on 09/14/96.