AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES : California vs. Boston : Angels Sock It to Red Sox and Clemens, 8-1 : Witt, 5-Hitter, Stars in Opener of AL Playoffs

Here we go again. Fenway Park, home of the worst-case-scenario syndrome ever since Boston’s Sox were red, has thrown another monkey wrench into the plans of a team forever trying to get the monkey off its back.

Tuesday night, the Red Sox had staked their claim to Game 1 of the American League playoffs on Roger Clemens, the man they had rallied ‘round in 1986 for their first division championship in more than a decade. Here was Mr. Cy-Soon-To-Be-Young. Here was Mr. 24-And-4, Lord of the Ks, the irresistible force throwing unhittable objects.

Clemens was also 3-0 against the Angels, who happen to be Boston’s final obstacles en route to the World Series, which they haven’t won since 1918. Well, the Red Sox figured, this was one they could count on. One down, just three to go.

Then they played Tuesday night’s game. Final score: Angels 8, Red Sox 1. Mike Witt wins with a five-hitter. Clemens loses with a combined nine-hitter.

In short, it was a stunning result. Clemens, who allowed two earned runs or fewer in 22 of his 33 starts this season, gave up four runs in the second inning and eight runs in his 7 innings. Seven were earned. He made enough pitches for nearly two games, 143, and required 45 alone to retire the side in the second inning.

Now he is 0-1 in the postseason, Boston is 0-1 at home, and the Red Sox are left to consider yet another dark, difficult question in another October.

Is there life after Clemens?

If there is, Wally Joyner, the Angel rookie who doubled twice in his first two at-bats at Clemens, suggested that it is going to be difficult.

“I think it’s very important we won this first game--and doubly important we beat him ,” Joyner said. “He threw a lot of pitches. We know now he won’t be coming back after two days’ rest. That means we don’t have to see a pitcher who was 24-4 for at least two more games.”

Boston Manager John McNamara, who earlier indicated he might come back with Clemens in Game 4, wasn’t in the mood to discuss those plans. “We haven’t played the second game yet,” he snapped. Game 2 in the best-of-seven series will be today.

McNamara was asked about Clemens’ elbow, which had been bruised by a line drive during the season’s final week and was the focus of much pre-playoff attention.

“No, there was no problem with the elbow whatsoever,” McNamara said. “He was strong, he threw the ball well. If anything, he could’ve been over-strong. He’d only pitched one-plus inning the day he got hit by the line drive (last Wednesday), so he had a lot of rest.

“During the early part of the game, he might have been overthrowing.”

Clemens’ catcher, Rich Gedman, agreed. “He was jumping it a little,” Gedman said.

The Angels jumped on Clemens in the second inning. Their first two hitters went down predictably--via the strikeout--but then Clemens got wild with the bottom of the batting order.

He walked Bob Boone, the Angels’ No. 8 batter, who had been held out of the lineup in all of Clemens’ previous three starts against California.

He walked Gary Pettis, who was 0 for 9 against Clemens during the season.

That brought up the top of the order and Ruppert Jones, who singled up the middle. Boone was the slowest man in the ballpark, give or take a couple of the 32,993 fans in attendance, but he scored easily when center fielder Tony Armas curiously directed his relay to third base instead of home.

With runners on first and third, Joyner fell behind 0 and 2, worked the count back to 2 and 2 and then went to the opposite field. The ball bounced in the left-field corner, scoring Pettis and moving Jones to third.

Brian Downing also fell to 0 and 2, then hung in to force a full count and followed with a single delivered almost in the same spot as Joyner’s. Downing’s hit one-hopped the Green Monster wall, bringing in Jones and Joyner with a two-run single.

How rare are hits off Clemens after the count is 0 and 2? This rare: American League hitters were a combined .109 once Clemens was ahead on the count, two strikes to no balls. On 230 such occasions, the league had driven in a total of seven runs.

And how rare are four-run innings off Clemens? He had one this year--against the Baltimore Orioles on Sept. 10. But that was his lone faltering in a complete game he eventually won, 9-4.

He would not win this one, however. The Angels added an unearned run in the third inning and scored three times in the eighth on Downing’s second two-run single of the night and a run-scoring single by Boone.

This the Angels presented to Witt, their No. 1 starter and an 18-game winner. Witt had lost to Clemens in July, 3-2, and figures as an also-ran in the race for Cy Young, but he got the upper hand in the matchup that really counts.

Witt held the Red Sox without a hit until Wade Boggs got a hit with two outs in the sixth. Well, kind of a hit. Kind of. For Boggs, the league batting champion for the third time in four seasons, this was the type of hit you sniff at--a half-swing wobbler that rolled down the third-base line, too slowly for Doug DeCinces to field and throw.

Coming after Witt’s only walk of the evening, to Spike Owen, the Red Sox had runners on first and second and, finally, had something going. Marty Barrett followed with a real hit, a sharp single to right, and Witt’s shutout was history as Owen scored.

But Witt averted further damage by inducing Bill Buckner to fly to left. Witt also allowed a seventh-inning double to Don Baylor and two more infield singles, to Owen and Barrett in the eighth.

But no more runs.

Witt, normally stoical on the days he pitches, admitted to having been caught up in the occasion of the night. You don’t often get a chance to beat Roger Clemens with an entire nation as your audience.

“I was excited from the first inning through the ninth like I’ve never been before,” Witt said. “This was the first time I had been involved in a playoff game as a headline pitcher.

“I’m sure (facing Clemens) had something to do with it. If we were to play the Mets and Dwight Gooden, it would have been the same thing. But, mainly, it was because I was the starting pitcher in the first game of the playoffs.”

According to Angel Manager Gene Mauch, this was nothing special, just another start in the life of Mike Witt.

“That’s the way we’ve come to expect Mike Witt, just about every time he goes out there,” Mauch said. “It doesn’t always work out that way, but that’s the way we feel about him.

“He pitched four games in August that were better than this one. The key to his success tonight was that he was coming in with the pitch the hitter never expected. Nobody in their lineup was ever absolutely sure what pitch he was gonna see next.”

Mauch also tried to downplay the importance of beating Clemens, even though it came in Game 1, in Fenway, and suddenly thrust the home-field advantage upon the Angels.

“I don’t place any special significance on beating him,” Mauch said. “It’s a win for us . . . and a chance for us to come out of here with two.”

Downing had an explanation for this line of thinking.

“It’s one win, but it’s only one win,” Downing said. “We haven’t forgotten Milwaukee in ‘82, when we were up 2-0. After losing that series, we can’t take anything for granted.”

The Red Sox, one must understand, aren’t the only ones familiar with the worst-case scenario during the month of October.