Clemens is impressive in minor league start

Roger Clemens threw 58 pitches in four innings for Class-A Tampa of the Florida State League on Friday night, his first minor league start as he prepares to rejoin the New York Yankees.

With owner George Steinbrenner watching from a private box at Legends Field, Clemens, a 44-year-old right-hander, gave up three hits, including a solo homer, and struck out two against the Fort Myers Miracle, a Minnesota Twins affiliate. He left to a standing ovation in the mostly full stadium.

Erik Lis homered in the first inning off Clemens, who came out of the game after needing only eight pitches to get through a perfect fourth inning. He planned to put in additional work in the bullpen.

The seven-time Cy Young Award winner agreed to a $28,000,022, one-year contract on May 6 and has been working out at the Yankees’ league complex in Tampa since last Monday. He’s expected to make a start with double-A Trenton next week and could join New York’s rotation as early as May 28 at Toronto or June 2 or 3 at Boston.

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Texas Rangers third baseman Hank Blalock, who has had shoulder discomfort in recent days, will have surgery to remove a rib Monday and could be out up to three months.

Blalock sat out Thursday’s game against Tampa Bay, but the Rangers thought he would be available for their first interleague series this weekend against Houston.

Instead, team officials said that he had been diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome, which affects the nerves that pass through the shoulder into the neck. The surgery will remove a rib on the right side of his upper chest.

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The commissioner’s office intends to investigate reported remarks by Yankees slugger Jason Giambi that the sport should apologize for use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Rob Manfred, executive vice president for labor relations in the commissioner’s office, spoke with Yankees President Randy Levine about the matter, a baseball official with knowledge of the conversation said, speaking on condition of anonymity because baseball officials didn’t want the matter publicly discussed.

“I was wrong for doing that stuff,” Giambi was quoted as saying in Friday’s editions of USA Today. “What we should have done a long time ago was stand up -- players, ownership, everybody -- and said: ‘We made a mistake.’ ”