By the way, Clemens only gave up two runs. I think this is the type of performance every Yankee fan was expecting:
"This is not what the Yankees were buying when they 'lured' Clemens out of a retirement he never really wanted. They thought they were buying the Rocket, a once-every-five-days performer who could lead them out of the abyss they had fallen into. He couldn't be just good, he needed to be great, and not just most of the time, but every time out.
But he is no longer that pitcher, no longer that man. In his dotage, the Rocket has become the bottle rocket, capable of the occasional 90-plus fastball - he hit 92 once in the first inning - but mostly living in Mike Mussina territory, high-to-mid 80s and nothing, I mean nothing, over the inside half of the plate.
Can this possibly be the same man who reduced the Mets to jelly in the 2000 World Series, who sawed off Mike Piazza's bat and threw the barrel at him?
Friday night, Clemens was undone by the smallest, slimmest, sleekest Mets, by Jose Reyes and Carlos Gomez, a couple of kids who rang his doorbell and ran. Between them, Reyes and Gomez combined for five hits, four stolen bases and both runs. Gomez bunted twice for hits on Clemens, and not once was he brushed back, not once was he made to feel that he had offended the new sheriff.
Gomez humiliated Clemens, as did Reyes, who twice lined Clemens' only real out pitch, the splitter, for singles, and then rubbed salt in it by crashing a first-pitch hanging curve off the upper deck in right.
And on the bases, he and Gomez mugged Clemens. In the third inning alone, Gomez stole second, leading to Reyes' RBI single. Then, Reyes stole second and third, only to be stranded by the second of Carlos Delgado's four strikeouts. The only time either of them tasted dirt was on their headfirst slides."
Clemens was "humiliated"?
So, basically, Matthews was going to write an anti-Clemens article no matter how Clemens pitched.
3 comments:
Wasn't the score 2-0? Reyes killed him, but no one else did.
Perez was the story last night
Yup. You can't win if you don't score.
Most Yankee fans and players are pleasantly surprised by Clemens's first two starts. Everyone knows he is overpaid -- even Cashman knows this. Everyone also knows he's old and won't give many innings.
Even more odd, perhaps, is Matthews's claim that Clemens isn't tough anymore. Clemens was "embarrassed" and didn't respond by dusting some of the Mets players.
Clemens hit Piazza in the head seven years ago, and that was a mistake. That's it. It's all reputation and nothing else.
I think Rey Ordonez hit .500 off Clemens and never got dusted. I distinctly remember Damian Rolls hitting two homeruns off Clemens in one game and never getting dusted.
It's just a reputation that never manifested itself since he came to NY. It's almost inconceivable that a sportswriter in NY still thinks Clemens is a headhunter. It's either living in the past, willful ignorance, or lack of observational skills. In short, "cognitive dissonance."
I was thinking about this some more.
1) If Clemens had plunked Reyes in a close game because of a personal axe to grind, Matthews would have said Clemens is selfish.
2) While Matthews recently opined that the Yankees' recent surge is largely due to Giambi's absence (more common theory is the Torre meeting; less common theory is Ball Thief's injury), Matthews conveniently ignores that the Yankee surge corresponds with Clemens's arrival.
All of these theories are likely bogus.
But I know that Pedro, Julio Franco, and countless others sure gets a lot of credit for their mere presence.
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