Red Sox Blast Rocket

By BILL PLASCHKE

Oct. 17, 1999 12 AM PT

BOSTON —

Forty minutes before the first pitch, Pedro Martinez jogs to the faded green right-field grass of Fenway Park to begin warming up.

Roger Clemens is absent.

Two New York Yankee catchers and two Yankee coaches walk to the same general area to help their pitcher get loose.

But Roger Clemens is absent.

The starting lineups are announced. Clemens’ name is booed with such luster, the ancient outfield rafters creak under the weight of the scorn.

But he doesn’t hear, because he is absent.

The Boston Symphony turns the national anthem into a painting. The last empty seats fill up with fans who paid $50 to sit behind a pole.

And Roger Clemens is absent.

The four Yankees stand with their hands on their hips, staring at their cleats, trying not to look over at the Boston bullpen where Pedro Martinez has already worked up a sweat.

The fans are singing for him now, Rahhh-gerrr, summoning their former hero to face his past and their future.

And yet Roger Clemens is . . . well, where is he?

Finally, at 4:06 p.m., 18 minutes before the first pitch in one of the defining games of his career, he shows up.

Although, as it turns out, he never does.

Two innings, five runs, a million questions later, Roger Clemens abruptly dropped out of baseball’s big debate Saturday, turning it into a Pedro Martinez monologue and 13-1 Red Sox win in Game 3 of the American League championship series.

Clemens is one of the best pitchers in baseball history, and his name will be checked on this voter’s Hall of Fame ballot at first opportunity.

But this time of year, the game hangs off him like a bad sweater.

He enjoys October like leaves enjoy blowers.

In big games, the Rocket shrinks.

On Saturday, facing the fearless, surrounded by the reckless, he flat disappeared.

“Where . . . is . . . Rahhh-gerrr,” chanted the Fenway crowd in the seventh inning, a packed and angry mob perhaps looking for one more pound of flesh.

Where, indeed?

Roger? “I thought I made some good pitches. Just not good enough.”

Catcher Joe Girardi? “I’m not a pitching coach and I’m not a psychologist.”

Owner George Steinbrenner? “These things happen. You just can’t let it happen again.”

David Cone saw it like most everybody else saw it, and was honest enough to admit it.

“[Roger] just never looked real comfortable out there,” he said.

As if he never wanted to be there in the first place.

As in 1986, when he perhaps hastened the Red Sox’s stunning downfall in the potentially deciding game of the World Series by leaving after seven innings with a blister.

Or as in 1990, when he got himself thrown out of an ALCS game against nemesis Dave Stewart for arguing balls and strikes in the second inning.

In 10 postseason starts, Clemens has won two--this year against patsy Texas, and in 1986 in Game 7 against the devastated Angels.

Just as Pedro Martinez’s knockout punch was nothing new Saturday, neither was his opponent’s sprint for the ropes.

Clemens was so disappointing, Manager Joe Torre took him out the moment reliever Hideki Irabu was ready.

Even if that happened to be on a 0-and-1 count to Brian Daubach, who then homered off Irabu to give the Red Sox a 6-0 lead.

“His stuff just wasn’t there, as simple as that,” Torre said.

Not even for an instant.

Even though he spends time stretching in the Yankee clubhouse, and didn’t need to be on the field until about 15 minutes after Martinez because he wouldn’t pitch until the bottom of the first inning, Clemens still arrived more than 30 minutes after his rival.

Then, against a backdrop of waving fists and hurled insults--”Have another donut, Roger” read one banner--he threw a quick ball to Jose Offerman.

Then Offerman drove his next pitch off the right-field wall for a triple.

Then his buddy John Valentin knocked a fat fastball into the net above the Green Monster.

But even then, it seems, Clemens could have survived if he had the will to survive.

What finished him wasn’t the biggest plays, but one of the smallest ones.

With two out in the second inning, Jason Varitek worked him for eight pitches--including three fouls with two strikes--before drawing a walk.

Anybody remember the last time somebody could hit three foul balls off a two-strike Roger Clemens pitch? And then worked a walk?

Clemens lasted only three more batters, equaling his shortest start of the season.

“This is what makes short series’ so great,” Torre said. “They test your insides.”

He wasn’t talking specifically about Clemens. At least, he didn’t say he was.

During the pitching change, it appeared that Torre was asking Clemens whether he wanted to be accompanied off the mound.

Clemens mouthed the words, “I’m all right,” and ran off by himself into the maw of boos that bounced through the late New England afternoon like a cold wind.

Give him credit for that. And give him credit for entering the interview room later, even if it was the last place he wanted to be, outside of the Fenway Park mound.

“I knew what I was up against . . . I would obviously like to have made a better showing,” he said. “I’m disappointed I wasn’t sharper than I was.”

Needing more heroes who can hang on to their saddles into nightfall, he probably wasn’t half as disappointed as baseball.

“We’re coming back!” heckling fans shouted to the Yankees as they departed their clubhouse for the team bus Saturday evening.

Even though he is supposed to pitch Game 7 if necessary, and even though Torre said he’s not changing the schedule, Clemens can’t make that same guarantee.

The best fastballs so far in this series have not been thrown by him, but against him.

“Roger, Thanks for the Memories” read the first part of one Fenway banner.

Which then continued:

“Especially this one.”

Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Pitcher Picture

Comparing the stats for New York’s Roger Clemens and Boston’s Pedro Martinez the last two seasons:

1998

CLEMENS (Toronto)

IP: 234 2/3

H: 169