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Rocket's red glare Clemens gets postseason breakthrough in crucial Game 4
Updated: Sunday October 15, 2000 2:55 AM
SEATTLE (AP) -- Roger Clemens, never more dominant as a Yankee and never better in a postseason game, came within inches of the no-hitter that has eluded his brilliant career. Clemens set an AL Championship Series record with 15 strikeouts Saturday night, beat the Seattle Mariners 5-0 and pitched only the second one-hitter of his career. "Tonight was special," the 38-year-old Clemens said. "I knew I was going to be strong. I tried to do the things I needed to do so I would not overthrow. My fastball was very much alive, and I just knew I needed to try to harness it early." It was magnificent pitching and great theater, but it could have been even so much more historic. Clemens walked Alex Rodriguez in the first inning, then retired 16 consecutive batters before Al Martin led off the seventh with a low liner that first baseman Tino Martinez leaped to grab but could only tip with his glove. "I couldn't get it," Martinez said. "I jumped the best I could. It's not like I could do much. He hit it pretty good. I didn't have time to think." It was the first hard shot, fair or foul, against Clemens, yet as Martin pulled into second Yankee manager Joe Torre ordered Jeff Nelson and Mike Stanton to warm up in the bullpen. Clemens never needed either one of them. He went right back to work, struck out Rodriguez for the second time, then Edgar Martinez and, after a walk to John Olerud, struck out Mike Cameron to put down the Mariners' only threat and preserve a 3-0 lead. David Justice's two-run homer in the eighth gave Clemens even more breathing room, and he resumed his power show with two more strikeouts in a 1-2-3 inning to take a 5-0 lead into the ninth. In a career that has brought him a record five Cy Young awards and will no doubt take him one day into the Hall of Fame, Clemens has been dogged by his failures in the playoffs and World Series. He had won only three games in 14 postseason starts, lost five, and had a 4.32 ERA. He is the only pitcher to win 250 games, yet have a losing postseason record. He hadn't always pitched poorly, but he never really put on the kind of overpowering performance that had been his trademark. But on this cool, clear night in Game 4 at Safeco Field, Clemens delivered. With two-seamed fastballs and four-seamed fastballs in the high 90s, with splitters and sliders, he blew away the Mariners. His 15 strikeouts set an ALCS record for a nine-inning game, and tied the mark Baltimore's Mike Mussina set in extra innings against Cleveland three years ago. Clemens had created history against a different generation of Seattle players in 1986 when he became the first pitcher to strike out 20 in a nine-inning game. If his total this time wasn't quite so high, it came in a far more important game, putting the Yankees within a victory of another World Series. Until this night, Clemens' defining moment with the Yankees came last year when he won the final game of the World Series sweep against Atlanta, then hopped on the dugout roof to high-five fans. He didn't slap hands with any of the morose fans in Seattle this time, settling instead for the warm handshakes from his teammates in a very low-key celebration. "The way he threw today, he erased a lot of the questions about him in the postseason," catcher Jorge Posada said. "A lot of people doubted him, but we didn't."
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