Clemens Puts Finishing Touch on Win

There was activity in the Toronto bullpen before the start of the ninth inning, so the official scorer began to announce Roger Clemens’ line.

With Clemens already in the 130-pitch range, the scorer expected him to call it a night. Turned out he spoke too soon.

Seconds later, Clemens sprang from the dugout steps to put the finishing touches on a five-hit shutout Thursday night in which he struck out 10 and set a single-season club mark with 202 as the Blue Jays beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-0, for a two-game series sweep.

“I built myself to throw 130-pitch games,” said Clemens (17-4), who used 137 pitches, 81 for strikes, in his 40th career shutout.

It was his second shutout and seventh complete game of the season.

“Longevity and hard work--the things I’m trying to do behind the scenes are paying off,” said Clemens, baseball’s first 17-game winner this season. “But the statistics don’t count. I appreciate that [the media] keep track of things like that. They’re nice to know. But it’s the game that counts.”

Clemens, who walked three and lowered his major league-leading earned-run average to 1.69, collected his 11th 10-plus strikeout game of the season, the 77th of his career. He passed Dave Stieb’s 1984 mark of 198 strikeouts.

Shawn Green paced the offense with two hits, two runs and one RBI, leading the Blue Jays to only their fourth win in their last 13 games but their eighth victory in their last nine home games.

John Smiley (1-1), acquired from the Cincinnati Reds on July 31, took the loss in his second start with the Indians.

Seattle 3, Chicago 2--Ken Griffey Jr., who had only three homers in July, hit his second homer of August to help the Mariners beat the White Sox at the Kingdome.

Griffey’s 34th homer, a solo shot in the fifth inning that hit off the facade of the second deck in right field, gave Seattle a 3-0 lead and left Griffey three homers behind Tino Martinez of New York for the American League lead.

Mike Blowers added a two-run homer as the Mariners won for the fourth time in five game and moved within a half-game of the first-place Angels in the AL West. The Mariners had only three hits.

New York 4, Texas 2--David Cone gave up only three hits in seven-plus innings and Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams homered as the Yankees won at Texas and split the two-game series.

Cone (12-5) gave up two singles and a triple and struck out eight. He walked two batters, both of whom scored.

Cone was relieved in the eighth by Mike Stanton after he gave up a leadoff triple to Domingo Cedeno. Stanton worked out of the jam without giving up a run before Mariano Rivera pitched the ninth and got his 34th save despite loading the bases.

Boston 7, Minnesota 6--Jeff Frye knocked in a run and scored twice as the Red Sox beat the Twins in Minnesota for their fourth consecutive victory.

Six players knocked in a run and Boston also scored on an error by Twin first baseman Scott Stahoviak to match its season-high winning streak.

Red Sox starter Aaron Sele (11-8) lasted 5 1/3 innings, enough to pick up the victory.

Oakland 5, Milwaukee 4--Rafael Bournigal’s run-scoring single over a drawn-in outfield in the 13th inning gave the Athletics, who blew a two-run lead in the ninth, a victory over the Brewers at Oakland.

Ernie Young began the 13th with a leadoff double off Doug Jones (3-5) and moved to third on a groundout.

Milwaukee pulled its infielders in and positioned its outfielders a short distance from the edge of the infield dirt. Bournigal then hit a 300-foot fly ball that went over the head of left fielder Jeff Huson.

Detroit 8, Kansas City 4--Bob Hamelin, released by the Royals in spring training, hit a solo home run and a run-scoring double as the Tigers defeated the Royals at Kansas City.

Bobby Higginson and Damion Easley also homered as Detroit improved to 53-59, matching last year’s victory total. The Tigers had the worst record in the majors last season at 53-109.

Joe Vitiello, Chili Davis and Jeff King homered for the Royals.

Glenn Dishman (1-0) won for the first time in the majors since Aug. 12, 1995, while with San Diego. He struck out a career-high eight in 7 2/3 innings for his first AL victory.

Hamelin put the Royals ahead for good in the fourth inning at 2-1 with his 13th home run.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

BESTS OF THE DAY

BATTING

Player: Ken Griffey

Team: Seattle

Performance: 2 for 4, 34th homer, double

Team’s Result: Win

*

Player: Bernie Williams

Team: New York

Performance: 3 for 4, homer, 2 RBIs

Team’s Result: Win

*

Player: Bob Hamelin

Team: Detroit

Performance: 2 for 4, homer, 2 runs 2 RBIs

Team’s Result: Win

PITCHING

Player: Roger Clemens

Team: Toronto

Performance: 9 innings, 5 hits, 0 runs, 10 strikeouts

Team’s Result: Win

*

Player: Scott Fassero

Team: Seattle

Performance: 7 1/3 innings, 4 hits, 1 run, 4 strikeouts

Team’s Result: Win

*

Player: David Cone

Team: New York

Performance: 7 innings, 3 hits, 2 runs, 8 strikeouts

Team’s Result: Win