Another Gem for Clemens

Roger Clemens dominated again, and this time he didn’t even have his best stuff.

Clemens pitched a two-hitter for his third consecutive shutout and extended his scoreless-innings streak to 29 Sunday, leading the Toronto Blue Jays to a 6-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins at Toronto.

“I was talking the other day about the five toughest pitchers I’ve faced in 21 years, and Roger’s name was on that list,” Minnesota’s Paul Molitor said. “When you give him the lead with the way he’s pitching you can pretty much bank it in.”

Clemens (17-6) hasn’t lost since May 29 and followed three-hit shutouts over Seattle and Kansas City by blanking the Twins. The 36-year-old right-hander walked three and struck out seven.

“It was one of those days when my arm felt heavy,” Clemens said. “It was just real hard to get my arm into a good slot consistently today, but when you get that type of run support it makes it pretty easy.”

Chicago 5, Texas 3--Jeff Abbott drove in two runs as the White Sox defeated struggling Todd Stottlemyre and the Rangers at Chicago.

Abbott hit a sacrifice fly in the third inning and a run-scoring double in the fifth for the White Sox, who have won five of their last seven games.

The loss dropped the Rangers three games behind the first-place Angels in the AL West.

Tampa Bay 10, Detroit 5--Rolando Arrojo pitched seven shutout innings for his first victory since July 16 and Bobby Smith homered at Detroit.

Arrojo (12-11) gave up only three singles. The 30-year-old rookie was 0-5 in his last seven starts.

Arrojo left after seven innings with a 6-0 lead that the bullpen almost blew when the Tigers scored five runs in the eighth. Roberto Hernandez got Frank Catalanotto to hit into an inning-ending, bases-loaded double play and finished the game for his 23rd save.

Kansas City 3, Baltimore 2--The Royals completed their first sweep of the Orioles since 1991 and stretched the Oriole losing streak to seven games with a victory at Baltimore.

Mendy Lopez had two RBIs in a three-run fifth inning that lifted the Royals to their ninth victory in 11 games.

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Clemens by the Month

A look at the month-by-month statistics for Roger Clemens this season:

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Month W-L ERA IP H BB SO April 2-3 3.62 27 1/3 17 17 24 May 3-3 3.43 42 32 21 45 June 4-0 4.04 42 1/3 42 14 44 July 4-0 1.73 36 1/3 25 13 35 August 4-0 0.90 50 25 10 68 Totals 17-6 2.64 198 141 75 216

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