Rejuvenated Wright faces Astros’ Clemens in opener
ATLANTA — Jaret Wright couldn’t get much lower: Waived by a last-place team, he stood outside Houston’s Minute Maid Park with his luggage stacked beside him, waiting for a cab that would take him to the airport.
As it turned out, things were starting to look up.
Wright was claimed by the Atlanta Braves, who remembered when he was a 21-year-old phenom starting the deciding game of the 1997 World Series, before injuries sent his career into a tailspin.
Just more than a year later, Wright has come full circle. The right-hander will start Game 1 of the National League playoffs against Roger Clemens and the Houston Astros.
“It happened a lot quicker than I thought it would,” Wright said Tuesday on the eve of the opening game at Turner Field.
Wright pitched well enough over the final month last season to earn a spot on the playoff roster as a reliever. Heading into spring training, he asked for a chance to start again.
As the season went along, Wright became Atlanta’s best starter. He finished 15-8 with a 3.28 ERA — moving to the top of the rotation in the best-of-5 division series.
The 42-year-old Clemens, who called off retirement to pitch for the Astros, had another remarkable season (18-4, 2.98) and is one of the leading contenders for the N.L. Cy Young award.
“He’s done a lot of stuff in the game that’s amazing,” Wright said. “To have my name called in Game 1 and go up against him, it’s an honor. I’m up for it. He’s going to battle. I’m going to battle just as hard.”
Clemens couldn’t pitch the final game of the regular season when stricken by a stomach virus.
The Astros won anyway, capping a remarkable run (36-10) over the final seven weeks that was good enough to claim the wild card by one game over San Francisco.
Clemens threw some with his oldest son on Monday, and felt better on Tuesday.
“However I feel, I’m going to make the most of it,” Clemens said. “I’ve pitched with different aches and pains throughout the years.”
The Astros seem to have a huge advantage on the mound for the opener. Clemens is a six-time Cy Young winner with 328 wins on his resume. Wright’s career record is just 52-45.
Then again, the 28-year-old right-hander knows a thing or two about pitching in pressure situations. As a rookie for the Cleveland Indians in 1997, Wright beat the New York Yankees twice in the division series and was the second-youngest pitcher ever to start to start Game 7 of the World Series.
He shut out the Florida Marlins for six innings, but came out after giving up a homer to Bobby Bonilla that cut Cleveland’s lead to 2-1. Wright watched in dismay as Cleveland’s bullpen gave up the tying run in the ninth, then the series-deciding run in the 11th.
Wright rarely tunes in for replays of that painful loss.
“I’ve caught glimpses of it,” he said. “It’s kind of a weird feeling. You get butterflies a little bit all over again watching it. I probably would have watched it 50 times over if we had won.”
Then came the injuries. After two shoulder operations and seven stints on the disabled list, the Indians gave up on Wright. He signed with San Diego before last season but went 1-4 with an 8.74 ERA in a mop-up role. By late August, the Padres threw in the towel, too.
The team was in Houston — of all places — when the Braves claimed Wright off waivers.
“When he joined our ball club, we gave him one inning at a time in important situations,” Braves manager Bobby Cox said. “And he pitched well for us right away.”
Wright had been obsessed with proving he still had the same zip on his pitches after all the injuries. Cox and pitching coach Leo Mazzone were more concerned with where the pitches went than what they registered on the radar gun.
“My arm felt good. It was just location,” Wright said. “The biggest thing we worked on when I got over here was throwing it to where you wanted it, instead of throwing 110 percent and not knowing where it’s going.”
Wright’s teammates say he’s a better pitcher now than he was before all the injuries.
“When there’s an injury to a pitcher, it makes him learn how to pitch,” Chipper Jones said.
“He was so young in 1997. He was a fire-balling flame-thrower who just reared back and said, ‘Here it comes.’ He’s learned to move it around. He can change speeds a little better. In the long run, that makes him a better pitcher as opposed to a thrower.”