Clement kept 'em in it by just keeping at it
NEW YORK -- All one can do at this early stage of Red Sox-Yankees 2005 is compare the new guys in the rivalry.
Randy Johnson was better than David Wells on Opening Night.
Carl Pavano was better than Matt Clement in yesterday's 4-3 Sox loss.
Yet Clement didn't leave Yankee Stadium feeling upset. As debuts go, it was average -- early shakiness with periods of effectiveness. But it wasn't a loss, either, as the Sox tied the game at 3-3 in the ninth inning on Jason Varitek's homer off Yankee closer Mariano Rivera before Derek Jeter's homer off Sox closer Keith Foulke ended it in the bottom of the ninth.
Manager Terry Francona used five pitchers after Clement, who threw 91 pitches over 4 1/3 innings and allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits, three walks, and a hit batter. The Sox defense let him down as well when shortstop Edgar Renteria botched a double-play grounder in the Yankees' three-run third.
The Yankees practiced what their hitting coach, Don Mattingly, constantly preaches: make the pitcher work.
"It forced me to throw some pitches that stretched my pitch count out a little bit, but then again I was happy I was able to keep us in the game and allow us to get back into it," Clement said. "I felt that, command-wise, I threw the ball pretty good."
Hideki Matsui's two-run homer off Clement with one out in the third didn't look like a horrible pitch -- a slider on the inside part of the plate -- but Matsui reached down and pulled it over the short fence in right field.
"The guy is hot right now and he's been hot for a while," Clement said. "Obviously you've got to learn from your mistakes. "
Clement already had wiggled out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the second after he allowed a Matsui single and walked Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams. Tino Martinez fouled to Varitek behind the plate, and Clement got Tony Womack to pop to second.
On his first pitch in the third, Clement hit Jeter on the left hand. With Alex Rodriguez up, Clement induced a hard grounder to shortstop, but the ball bounced off the heel of Renteria's glove and over his shoulder into left-center field. With no way to get Jeter at third, Johnny Damon's throw was cut off by third baseman Bill Mueller, and his attempt to gun down Rodriguez, who aggressively chugged for second, arrived in plenty of time, but Rodriguez dodged Mark Bellhorn's tag.
After Gary Sheffield produced an RBI groundout to third, Matsui turned on Clement's 2-2 offering.
"I don't think [Renteria's error] affected me at all," said Clement, who exited with one out in the fifth, trailing, 3-1. "I've watched Edgar play for six years and I'd be surprised to see that happen again this year . . . he's as good as there is in this game. When I was on [the Cubs], that was one shortstop I wanted to play with. I'm happy to have him behind me, he's going to help me a lot."
Clement thought the Sox might have been hurt just as much by Rodriguez's slide into second base.
"We thought [he] was out for sure there," Clement said. "I guess he got under the tag."
Clement admitted to having butterflies before the game and to stopping during warmups to soak in the atmosphere of his first Yankee Stadium start.
"It was a day I'll never forget," he said. "Really exciting. Not only to pitch here for the first time but to pitch in this rivalry. It's definitely an exciting thing, something I'll always remember.
"Next time it'll be more routine, I guess. I wish we'd won. I wish I could have pitched longer and better. It wasn't the best I'm going to throw and it wasn't the worst. Pretty average. But the key for me was when you are average, you try to keep your team in the game. That's the part I can go home with."
