No K’s, no victory for Clemens
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Podcast on Jun 28, 2007 
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Roger Clemens is 1-3 with a 5.32 ERA. But the good news is that he’s costing only $872,000 per start. Come back, Matt DeSalvo, all is forgiven. We’ll get you a gift certificate at Borders.
In defense of the Rocket, he has mostly done what the Yankees have asked, which is to give them a chance to win.
Meanwhile, Clemens did not strike out anybody tonight. It is only the 11th time that has happened in 694 appearances. The last four times were starts when Clemens went less than two innings because of injuries.
You have to go back to July 21, 1987 to find a game when Clemens went at least six innings without a strikeout. And what a game that was as Clemens threw a five-hit shutout against the California Angels. He didn’t allow a walk or get a strikeout and threw 77 pitches.
I used the event finder at baseball-reference.com to look that up. What a great research tool.
Here is the audio from Roger’s postgame interview session. Hopefully it sounds OK as I was boxing out for position. Roger is an interesting guy to cover but a tough interview.
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“interesting guy to cover but a tough interview” is baseball writer speak for *A-hole*
Rodger Dodger:
No, not true. Roger is a tough interview because he doesn’t finish sentences before going into another thought. He also tends to repeat things he said earlier.
In fact, Roger is a cooperative guy who treats the writers with professional respect.
It was meant to be a joke.
It’s good to hear that Pete. I know a couple of sports writers for football teams that say the same thing about some of the football players. I remember my buddy in Dallas who worked with the sports writers for the Dallas Cowboys. There were some players who respected the writer enough to give them their home phone numbers and cells. Some he said were fan favorites who they would have problems trying to interview because they would get stuck on the questions. He also said a lot of players would take trainings from some of the sports guys on how to interview. I don’t know if you are familiar with any of the cowboys sports writers but he worked with Mickey Spagnola and a few others. He only an intern for one summer but he said sometimes it would get pretty interesting.
Pete I think you do a good job because you give feedback and answer questions we ask. I know this has to be a tough few weeks for you having to deal with some frustrated fans on your blog. But I think you give your thoughts and information as well as anyone could. I appreciate your input and updates.
Clemens has pitched well in every start save the one vs. the Rockies and would’ve lost tonight 1-0 even without giving up the three-run shot to Huff.
It’s not his fault the Yanks haven’t or barely scored in the games he’s started after his first start of ’07 vs. the Pirates.
I heard from Janib Abreu of ABC7 – she said almost all the Yankees were mean and arrogant snobs – she was with ABC7 from 1997 to about 2004. She did love the NJ Devils and the NY Giants though – said they were great and very friendly and professional.
Any truth to this Pete?
“Roger is a tough interview because he doesn’t finish sentences before going into another thought. He also tends to repeat things he said earlier.”
Roger simply isn’t that bright.
Check out my website link (it’s baseball-reference.com’s Stat of the Day blog) for more on zero-strikeout starts.
77 pitches in a 9 inning game? Does he think he’s Greg Maddux?
I don’t think that box score has any pitch-by-pitch data — it is from twenty years ago, after all.
The 77 is the Game Score for Clemens’ start.