Clemens Says He’ll Be Set for Opener Against the Angels

Roger Clemens has a lock on the American League’s Cy Young Award. He is also a candidate for the Most Valuable Player award.

Maybe he’s going for comeback player of the year as well.

Less than 24 hours after his availability for the American League playoffs seemed threatened by a line drive that struck his right elbow, the ace of the Boston Red Sox pitching staff said he will have no problems keeping his appointment with the Angels in Tuesday night’s playoff opener.

“I’ll be 100%,” Clemens said Thursday. “No one is going to take it away from me.

“I’ll throw on the side Saturday and pitch Tuesday.”

Clemens was forced out of Wednesday night’s start against Baltimore, his last of the regular season, when he was hit by by catcher John Stefero’s line drive.

X-rays were negative, but there was concern over the possibility of stiffness and swelling.

Clemens said Thursday that there is no swelling, no impairment of elbow movement and only a little tenderness.

He ran sprints in the outfield and took batting practice with the other pitchers.

Said Dr. Arthur Pappas, the team physician:

“Roger has good pain tolerance, but he was fortunate in regard to where he was hit. Half an inch either way and it would be a whole different prognosis.

“It could have been the season--or worse.”

Pappas said the drive struck bone half an inch above the elbow. A little lower, he said, and it might have resulted in a break. A little higher and it would have involved muscle, compounding the possibility of swelling.

“I’ve had a lot of balls hit back at me and taken a lot of shots off my body,” Clemens said. “I’ve had to deal with a lot of pain--both in football and baseball. This would have to be a lot worse to prevent me from pitching Tuesday.”

Clemens said he will continue to ice the elbow but hasn’t required pain killer.

He said he saw Stefero’s drive coming and tried to take it on his back.

He was leading, 4-0, in a bid for his 25th win, but while motivated by the thought of 25--”I’d go back out there tomorrow if they’d let me”--he said he was also experiencing a case of “blahs.”

“I kind of felt as if I was going through the motions,” Clemens said. “I was slow to react. Normally I’m a good fielder. Normally I might have caught that ball. I was more angry than hurt.”

He said there was one benefit to the incident.

“That’s the first time I’ve had my elbow X-rayed and I was curious to see what it looked like anyway,” he said. “Most pitchers have a lot of chips and junk floating around in there, but mine is perfect. I guess my milk drinking paid off.”

Tom Seaver, who has not pitched since Sept. 19, threw for 15 minutes in the bullpen Thursday and said he felt better than at any time since suffering a strained right knee. But he was still not sure he would be able to pitch in Sunday’s regular-season finale against New York.

The Red Sox, who must file their playoff roster by noon Monday, will not include Seaver unless he is pitching competitively before then.

Seaver and Al Nipper are the Game 4 pitching candidates.