Clemens Spurs Red Sox Pitchers : Right-Hander Has Allowed Consecutive Hits Eight Times

Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox is the MIP this far into the season.

MIP--Most Invaluable Player.

The hard-throwing right-hander has Boston in first place and the Red Sox pitching staff nearly a half-run per game better than any other staff in the league.

Clemens is having the kind of year of which dreams and dollars are made. He was 12-0 through June 18 and Boston had won all 13 of his starts. He had a 2.17 earned-run average despite having just one shutout and had walked only 26 batters in 107 innings.

Only six pitchers have opened a season better than Clemens--Ron Guidry, 13-0, for the New York Yankees in 1978; Brooks Lawrence, 13-0, for Cincinnati in 1956. McNally began 1969 15-0 for Baltimore, as did Johnny Allen of Cleveland in 1937. Elroy Face won his first 17 (all in relief) in 1959 while Rube Marquard holds the record at 19-0 with the 1912 New York Giants.

Only one time has Clemens given up three consecutive hits--to Minnesota with Boston holding a commanding lead in a 17-7 victory. Only eight times has Clemens allowed back-to-back hits in his total of 69 hits allowed.

Those kinds of statistics suggest a trip to the Baseball Encyclopedia, which shows Clemens is on track for the ninth best ratio in baseball history for fewest hits per nine innings.

Clemens is allowing only 5.75 hits every nine innings, just a shade better than Baltimore’s Dave McNally did (5.77) in 1968. Last year Sid Fernandez of the New York Mets allowed only 5.72 hits per nine innings, the seventh best ratio ever.

Nolan Ryan’s 5.26 in 1972 and Luis Tiant’s 5.30 in 1968 are 1-2 all-time.

The strong showing of Clemens demonstrates what kind of an effect an overpowering performance can have on a staff.

Clemens had won six times following Boston losses and has taken a great deal of pressure off his fellow pitchers. This is especially noticeable in Dennis Boyd, who has blossomed with a 9-4 season and 3.22 ERA now that he’s no longer the main attraction.

“The kind of season Clemens is having,” one manager said recently, “makes it easier for everybody on the staff. They know he’s going to win nearly every time out so it takes pressure off them. It gives the whole team confidence, too, because they know there aren’t going to be any long losing streaks.”

Case in point: what happened when starters Bruce Hurst and Al Nipper went down? Instead of falling, Boston actually rose in the standings. Jeff Sellers and Rob Woodward came up and pitched .500 ball as their replacements.

That isn’t going to happen to the average team that loses 40% of its starting rotation. But this isn’t an average year for the Boston Red Sox.

The MIP performance of Clemens means Boston is in excellent shape to do something it has not done since 1914--lead the league in earned run average.

In 1914, a tall, solidly built 19-year-old appeared in the majors for the first time. He pitched in four games, going 2-1 with a 3.91 ERA for staff that had a league-best 2.35 mark. That 6-2, 215-pound younster was Ruth--Babe Ruth--and the left-hander helped Boston finish second with a 91-62 record.

Pitching has not been a Red Sox trademark through the years, but many of Boston’s good seasons have been marked by decent mound work.

In 1946, when Boston was 104-50, the staff ERA was 3.38, fourth-best in the league. Two years later, when Cleveland won a one-game playoff from Boston, the Indians led the league in ERA (3.22) but the Red Sox (4.20) were far behind.

In Boston’s 1967 title season the pitchers had a 3.36 ERA, trailing Chicago’s 2.45 by quite a bit and just off the 3.23 league average. The White Sox couldn’t hit with the Red Sox that season, though, and finished fourth, three game out.

In 1969 the Red Sox started a string of eight straight seasons where the staff ERA ranged from 3.47 to 3.99. The team finished first in 1975 and second or third every other year. In 1975, the staff ERA was 3.99, which ranked ninth in the league.

When Boston lost its one-game playoff to New York in 1978 its 3.54 staff ERA was fourth best. The only time since then it has been below 4.00 was the strike season of 1981.