MLB: Day Seventy-Six
Friday finally saw the New York Yankees lose. And it was with Roger Clemens on the mound too. Not that Clemens can be blamed for the loss. In fact, Clemens pitched very well and held one of the best offensive teams in baseball to only two runs. The only problem was, the Yankees couldn’t manufacture any runs for The Rocket. So, Clemens and the Yanks lost to the New York Mets 2-0.
Even though they lost, the Yankees and their fans have to be smiling. Not only did they just rattle off nine straight wins, and not only did they gain some serious ground on the Boston Red Sox, but they also seem to have the same Roger Clemens that’s been more then effective on the mound for the last 20 years or so.
There were rumblings that Clemens was too old to be that good of a pitcher. Many Yankees fans were anxiously waiting, hoping Clemens would still be good. And many Yankees haters were waiting to rip Steinbrenner for spending so much money on a guy who’s no longer that good.
But at least for his first two starts, Clemens looks like he’ll be just fine. And the performance on Friday, though he took the loss, was very impressive.
The Red Sox have to be a little concerned with the way Clemens is pitching. However, they were able to put one more game between themselves and the Yanks. That’s because the Sox beat-up on the San Francisco Giants 10-2.
Taking the loss for the Giants was Barry Zito. Zito is now a game under .500 at 6-7. But the Giants don’t give him a whole lot of offensive help either. Not that they would’ve scored more than ten runs against the Red Sox pitching but still. Zito’s ERA is 4.41, which isn’t that bad. But to be very successful on this Giants team, Zito will probably have to get that ERA down to around 2.5 – a full two runs.
It’ll be fun to watch as the Mets and Yankees battle it out over the weekend. It’s also cool to see Barry Bonds playing at historic Fenway Park for the first time in his career. Perhaps he’ll hit a home run and get a step or two closer to Hank Aaron’s record.
