Angels Bring Out the Best in Clemens : Baseball: Right-hander leads Red Sox to 4-1 victory, only his second in eight starts.

The Angels traipsed into the visiting clubhouse Monday morning at Fenway Park. It was unusually quiet. There was no laughter and only a few words spoken.

They had been forewarned days ago, and now the moment finally had arrived.

They were about to face Roger Clemens.

It seemed a cruel assignment, particularly considering the Angels are vying with the San Diego Padres for the worst record in baseball, but they were buoyed by the rumors that Clemens had been struggling.

Clemens had won only one of his last seven starts. . . . His fastball had diminished. . . . He wasn’t picked for the All-Star game. . . . Maybe this would finally be their day?

“Guys came in thinking, ‘Hey, here’s my shot,’ ” Angel right fielder Tim Salmon said. “ ‘If I can do something off him, it’ll probably be on ‘SportsCenter.’ ‘

“Everybody was looking forward to the challenge.”

Well, a few hours later, the Angels were back sitting in front of their lockers, asking one another how this can keep happening, losing once again, 4-1, to the Boston Red Sox.

Clemens (7-4) made the Angels look inept--which hasn’t been difficult these days--yielding only two hits and striking out 10 in seven innings before leaving because of a tight groin. He has defeated the Angels in nine consecutive starts at Fenway, compiling a 1.09 earned-run average.

No pitcher has dominated the Angels as has Clemens. He has defeated them 20 times in his career, the most victories by any active pitcher.

“That was the old Roger Clemens that I’ve seen,” Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “He didn’t look too bad to me.”

No one’s looking bad these days against the Angels, who lost for the 23rd time in 34 games and at 34-49 are 15 games below .500 for the first time this season. The Angels are batting .162 this trip, and have been limited to four hits or fewer in four of their last six games.

“They’re slumping now, no doubt about that,” Lachemann said of his hitters. “But they have been basically carrying this club all year. So to say one part of the team is more responsible than another is wrong.”

Against Clemens, the Angels didn’t reach second base until the fifth inning and didn’t reached third until the ninth.

“He gets a lot of respect from me,” said Chili Davis, who struck out for the 23rd time in his career against Clemens, the most of any active player. “But I wouldn’t put Roger in a class of his own. I give guys respect, but I don’t put guys in the immortal category.

“If they were that damn good, they’d be 29-0 every year, have thousands of strikeouts, and nobody would even touch him.”

Said Salmon: “All I know is that I can be looking for a fastball, and he can throw a fastball--and he can still throw it right by me.

“Believe me, I face him enough.”

The Angels’ only hope on this day was when Clemens left the game. Angel starter Phil Leftwich, who retired 19 of the last 21 he faced in his first complete game of the season, was invigorated.

“I had a great feeling when that happened,” Salmon said. “I thought, ‘Hey, this is our day.’ ”

Instead, it made little difference. The Angels opened the ninth with consecutive singles against reliever Ken Ryan, but meekly ended the game when Jim Edmonds, Chad Curtis and J.T. Snow failed to hit the ball out of the infield.