Like his start, sympathy in short supply
On another night, and for another Red Sox pitcher, the boos might not have flowed quite so easily from the Fenway Park crowd.
Matt Clement, after all, had taken a line drive off his right leg, just above the ankle, hit with sufficient force by Bernie Williams in the second inning that trainer Paul Lessard, along with manager Terry Francona and pitching coach Al Nipper, hustled to his side.
But this gathering of 36,375 was not in an understanding state. Not with the Yankees the opposition. Not on a night when the Sox were cuffing around Randy Johnson. Not when the pitcher was Clement, whose capacity to elicit any sympathy has long since been eroded by too many starts that have traversed past mediocre to miserable.
It probably would surprise many observers to know that of Clement's 42 starts in a Red Sox uniform, there have been 20 times he has pitched at least six innings and held the opposition to three or fewer runs. Or that the Sox are 27-15 in the games in which Clement has taken the mound.
But what tends to linger in memory (especially in a place where bitter usually gets the call over sweet) are Clement's nine outings in a Sox uniform that have wound up being awful. Three times when he has allowed eight or more runs, including last night's 8-6 loss to the Yankees and the Game 1 debacle to the White Sox in the playoffs last season. Four times when he has given up seven runs, once in just an inning and a third. The two other times the yield was six runs. In those nine starts, Clement has allowed 64 earned runs in just 38 1/3 innings, an earned run average of 15.02.
``I mean, I gave up eight runs, they pay to see us win, I should get booed," Clement said, when asked if he heard the hostility directed his way when he was pulled with one out in the fifth, six runs in, and two more about to score on Melky Cabrera's base hit off reliever Julian Tavarez. ``At the same time, amongst boos, there were people cheering, too, maybe it's a thing where you have to do your job for that to happen.
``They have the right to do whatever they want to do. I'm still going to go out there and bust my butt every time I can and try to get outs. If it means that a rough game like this you get booed, you be a man and live with it."
Clement's earned run average climbed nearly one full point, from 5.36 to 6.31. That's a terrible neighborhood for a pitcher to reside in, but you'd be surprised at some of the other pitchers who are in the same precinct as Clement. Quality pitchers such as Brad Radke and Carlos Silva of the Twins, Paul Byrd of the Indians, Rodrigo Lopez of the Orioles. And how about Randy Johnson, who didn't do anything to ease the worries of those who wonder if he has finally hit the wall at 42, the Sox whacking him around for five runs on nine hits in just five innings, leaving his ERA at 5.89.
``Good, bad, good, bad," manager Joe Torre said of Johnson, but he could just as easily have been speaking about Clement, who retired the first five batters he faced, then put 14 of the next 22 batters on base. In doing so, he put catcher Jason Varitek through an extreme workout, bouncing pitches and missing his target badly with others, while falling down and ducking and generally looking beyond uncomfortable.
Clement had made little effort to hide his discontent when Francona reshuffled the Sox' rotation in such a way that Clement wouldn't face the Yankees a couple of weeks ago in New York. With a chance to prove his manager should have had more faith in him, Clement wasn't up to the task last night. Not on a stiff ankle that was X-rayed after he came out (X-rays were negative) and had him limping into the interview room after the game.
``How much it affected him, I don't know," Francona said. ``I know it got him pretty good."
Clement said he didn't want to use the ankle as the reason he struggled, perhaps because he knew the skeptics probably wouldn't buy it anyhow. The $9 million-plus the Sox are paying him this season also contributes to the intolerance for his failures. That, and the knowledge that the Sox were willing to trade Clement all winter.
That's a tough environment in which to hold on to your confidence, and while Clement clings to whatever he has left, the reaction he got last night suggests he's pretty much on his own.
