Clemens Clobbers Mariners

The first and last games of a trip through the American League East brought the Seattle Mariners face-to-face with the oldest adage in baseball - good pitching stops good hitting.

Thursday, Boston’s Roger Clemens not only beat the Mariners 11-4, he proved good pitchers can hit good pitching.

No-hit by Dwight Gooden when the trip began in New York, Seattle was beaten by another right-handed legend in the eighth game of their trip, felled by a complete-game from Clemens, who has always dominated the Mariners.

To the delight of a Fenway Park crowd of 31,551, Clemens proved he not only owns M’s hitters, he owns their pitchers, too - singling up the middle in the eighth inning against reliever Norm Charlton.

Kevin Kennedy, the manager who once used Jose Canseco as a pitcher with disastrous results, this time used his ace, Clemens, as a hitter after managing his way out of the use of a designated hitter.

“That wasn’t too smart,” Charlton said.

Clemens strode apologetically to the plate in the eighth inning for his first regular-season at-bat in the majors and told catcher John Marzano, an ex-teammate, he was there to do one thing.

“He said ‘I’m here to take three swings and sit down,”’ Marzano said.

It was not a tactically brilliant move for Boston. In a blowout game, Clemens had thrown a pitch up and in to Ken Griffey Jr. a half-inning earlier - and Mike Jackson had brushed back two Red Sox hitters before Clemens came to the plate.

“If I’d thought Roger had thrown at Junior intentionally, I’d have put one in his ribs and he might have missed two weeks,” Charlton said without anger. “How smart is that, at this stage of his career, to send Roger up there? He pitches like a man, he comes up and in on hitters, and there are a lot of guys who’d like to see him go down.”

Charlton isn’t one of them. Down by seven runs, he threw Clemens nothing but fastballs, and on the third, Clemens shot a ground ball up the middle that nearly took off Charlton’s leg.

From the dugout where he watched his team’s record on this swing through the East even out at 4-4, Mariners manager Lou Piniella didn’t much care by the eighth inning whether Clemens singled, struck out or hit one off the Green Monster in left field. What he saw with envy was a starting pitcher still in a game late - something he hasn’t seen from anyone in a Seattle uniform.

“In the eight games on this trip, our starting pitchers went 32 innings,” Piniella said. “Our bullpen pitched more than our starters, and that’s got to change. It’s not asking too much to expect a pitcher who works every fifth day to give you six, seven innings.”

Perhaps not, but no Mariners starter has pitched six innings in the past 11 games.

Veteran Bob Milacki wanted to, but after burning up 81 pitches in 4 innings, Piniella yanked him in the Boston fifth inning with two outs and two men on base. Trailing 3-2 at the time, Piniella wanted to fall no further behind Clemens - and Milacki was about to face Mo Vaughn.

“My game is getting ahead of the hitters and I didn’t do that tonight,” Milacki said.

Reliever Rafael Carmona got out of the inning, and the Mariners tried to break through against Clemens in the top of the fifth. Paul Sorrento singled, Doug Strange doubled and there was the opportunity teams dream of - runners on second and third base and none out.

Clemens got out of it without allowing a run, retiring Marzano and Joey Cora on shallow fly balls and getting Darren Bragg on a ground out.

Red Sox 11, Mariners 4

Seattle AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Bragg lf 3 0 0 1 0 0 .333 ARodrigz ss 4 0 1 0 0 1 .345 Griffey Jr cf 4 1 1 1 0 1 .284 EMartinz dh 4 0 1 0 0 0 .345 Buhner rf 3 1 0 0 1 3 .304 Sorrento 1b 4 1 2 0 0 0 .276 Strange 3b 3 0 1 0 1 0 .243 Marzano c 4 1 1 0 0 0 .273 Cora 2b 3 0 2 2 0 0 .225 Totals 32 4 9 4 2 5

Boston AB R H BI BB SO Avg. O’Leary rf-cf 6 1 2 4 0 2 .285 JnValntin ss 3 1 2 1 2 0 .293 MVaughn 1b 3 0 0 1 2 2 .345 Cansco dh-lf 4 1 1 1 1 0 .293 Jefferson lf 4 0 1 0 0 0 .377 1-Mlave pr-rf 0 2 0 0 0 0 —- Naehring 3b 4 3 3 2 1 0 .360 Haselman c 5 1 1 0 0 1 .316 Manto 2b 4 2 1 0 1 1 .250 Cuyler cf 2 0 1 0 0 0 .176 a-Stanley ph 1 0 1 2 0 0 .295 Clemens p 1 0 1 0 0 0 1.000 Totals 37 11 14 11 7 6

Seattle 001 100 200 - 4 9 0 Boston 120 002 42x -11 14 0

a-singled for Cuyler in the 7th.

1-ran for Jefferson in the 7th.

LOB-Seattle 4, Boston 11. 2B-EMartinez (22), Sorrento (6), Strange (1), Marzano (3), Jefferson (10), Manto (1). HR- O’Leary (6) off Carmona; JnValentin (4) off Milacki; Canseco (11) off Carmona; Naehring (3) off MJackson; Griffey Jr (12) off Clemens. RBIsBragg (8), Griffey Jr (30), Cora 2 (11), O’Leary 4 (27), JnValentin (21), MVaughn (49), Canseco (22), Naehring 2 (15), Stanley 2 (21). SB-Cuyler (5). CS- Cora (1). S-Cuyler. SF-Bragg. GIDPGriffey Jr.

Runners left in scoring position-Seattle 3 (Bragg 2, Marzano); Boston 4 (MVaughn 2, Canseco 2).

Runners moved up-Sorrento, Cuyler.

DP-Boston 1 (JnValentin, Manto and MVaughn).

Seattle IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Milacki L, 1-1 3-2/3 6 3 3 3 4 81 6.00 Carmona 2-1/3 5 5 5 1 1 46 3.57 Davison 1/3 0 1 1 1 0 7 8.31 TDavis 1/3 1 0 0 2 0 15 4.91 MJackson 2/3 1 2 2 0 1 14 5.57 Charlton 2/3 1 0 0 0 0 9 3.26

Boston IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Clemns W,3-4 9 9 4 4 2 5 129 3.72

Carmona pitched to 3 batters in the 7th.

Inherited runners-scored-Carmona 2-0, Davison 2-0, TDavis 3-3, MJackson 3-0.

HBPby MJackson (Malave).

T-3:10. A-31,551 (33,871).