Twins 7 Yankees 3
For five shutout innings yesterday, Roger Clemens once again was The Rocket.
Unfortunately for Clemens and the Yankees, those innings were the second through the sixth. On either side of those dominant frames were a
shaky first and seventh, when Clemens was the same inconsistent enigma who has puzzled the Bombers since coming to The Bronx.
It was in those rocky innings that the Yankees’ 7-3 loss to the Twins was decided.
Clemens gave up three runs in the first inning, and after the Yanks climbed back to tie the game 3-3, he gave up two more runs in the seventh and left to scattered boos.
And after the Bombers had lost their first home game of the year, they were left scratching their heads at a five-time Cy Young winner who can dominate one inning and disintegrate the next.
“He was in command. I don’t think he tired, he just made a couple of pitches that weren’t good pitches. I know it was frustrating to Roger,” said manager Joe Torre. “The guy’s a puzzle, that’s it.”
He’s been one since donning pinstripes. Clemens (62/3 innings, five hits, five runs) had pitched well in Texas last Wednesday, giving up just two runs and four hits over seven-plus innings before leaving with tightness in his back. But he wouldn’t use his back as an excuse, and it sure didn’t seem to bother his stuff yesterday.
He struck out nine to give him 3,344 in his career to pass Phil Niekro for eighth on the all-time list. But as good as his stuff was, it didn’t keep the Twins from getting two runs in the seventh – rookie catcher Matt LeCroy’s RBI double and Todd Walker’s sac fly – and two in the ninth to earn their sixth win in seven games.
“It was disappointing for the fact that we had fought back to tie,” Clemens said. “It would’ve taken just one or two pitches to make things happen differently. Obviously I’d rather have had better results, but I made good pitches. I made the pitches I wanted to make, they just got hits. The first inning [was the key]. You can’t go out and spot guys three runs.”
That’s exactly what he did, walking Walker and Cristian Guzman to lead off the game, and giving up a Matt Lawton single to load the bases. Walker scored on Ron Coomer’s infield out and Butch Huskey’s two-out single through the hole at short plated Guzman and Lawton. Ex-Yankee prospect Eric Milton (2-0) had a three-run lead before he ever took the mound.
Tino Martinez’s RBI single in the bottom of the inning cut it to 3-1. And after throwing 47 pitches in the first two innings, Clemens settled in, facing the minimum from the second through the sixth and fanning Guzman with a belt-high pitch in the fifth to pass Niekro.
Paul O’Neill led off the home sixth with a single to left, and when Twin LF Jacque Jones lost Bernie Williams’ routine fly in the sun, the Yanks had runners on first and second with nobody out. The 24-year-old Milton (6 IP, five hits, seven strikeouts), possibly shaken, uncorked a wild pitch to advanced the runners, and Martinez stroked an RBI single to right. Shane Spencer’s sac fly plated Williams with the tying run.
But Jones – who went 2-for-4 with two runs scored – redeemed himself in the top of the seventh, leading off with a double to left-center. Two pitches later LeCroy doubled past Alfonso Soriano at third to plate what proved to be the game-winner.
Walker added a sac fly that inning, and Clemens’ walk to Guzman ended his day. Mike Stanton came on and picked Guzman off first, but the Twins led 5-3 and added two in the ninth off Jeff Nelson on a LeCroy sac fly and a Spencer throwing error.
“Our gameplan was to try to work him a little,” Jones said. “We’ve been a free-swinging team, but we’ve watched how the Yankees work pitchers and tire them out, so we set out to do that with Clemens and we think it worked.”
Said Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter: “Milton pitched well. You have to tip your hat to him. [But] by no stretch of the imagination are we playing up to our [expectations]. Rocket struggled in the first inning, but he pitched well enough to win. We have to find ways to score some runs.”