Section B·Page 6
Opening Day
Tuesday, April 3, 2001
Clemens passes AL strikeout record
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — The World Series flag was raised, there was a sellout crowd and Roger Clemens wanted to bring back a memento for Mom.
The Rocket wasn't going to pass up this chance to set a record.
Clemens became the American League strikeout king yesterday, striking out five and passing Walter Johnson as the Yankees won their season opener 7-3 against the Kansas City Royals.
"I wanted to do it here in this setting and on this stage," said Clemens, who was planning to fly to Houston to show the record-setting ball to his mom, who
recently got out of intensive care for treatment of emphysema.
Clemens, who has a picture of Johnson hanging in his locker, nearly didn't get a chance for the record in the opener.
He had only three strikeouts in the first seven innings and was hit in the right forearm by a backbacker against the first batter of the eighth.
The ball even left an imprint on Clemens' arm, but it wasn't enough to slow
him. He struck out Carlos Beltran, which tied the record, and then manager Joe Torre sent Clemens out to start the ninth.
"I felt extremely fresh and strong," Clemens said. "Once I tied it, I desperately wanted to try to have it happen here."
After a leadoff double by Jermaine Dye, Clemens got Joe Randa on a forkball in the dirt, registering his 3,509th career strikeout.
"That's a lot of guys he's sent back to the house," said Yankees teammate David Justice.
The Rocket got a standing ovation after the record-setting strikeout and congratulations from his teammates on the mound. Clemens waved to the crowd and pumped his fist as he left the field with the ball.
Clemens, who has a record five Cy Young Awards in a career that will end in Cooperstown, passed a record that stood as the major league mark from 1927-83, when Nolan Ryan broke it.
The Yankees, a major league-worst 9-20 in spring training, started this season the way they ended 2000.
BOX SCORE
YANKEES 7, ROYALS 3
Jorge Posada went 3-for-4 with a homer and four RBI, and Bernie Williams and Tino Martinez also homered in the Yankees first opener at home since 1995.
YANKEES 7, ROYALS 3
Kansas City 000 011 1001 — 3
New York 000 105 10x — 7
E. William 000 105 10x — 7
Louisville-Kansas City 6, New York 8.
2B—Dye (1), Canada (1), HR—Dye (1), BeWilliams
(1), TMattert (1), Posada (1), SB—CBeTran (1)
WP—Clements.
LP—Suppan.
S—M Rivera.
Cubs lose opener to Expos in extra innings
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — Vladimir Guerrero hit an RBI single and Jose Vidro hit a two-run home run yesterday as the Montreal Expos beat the Chicago Cubs 5-4 in 10 innings in their season opener.
Winn er
Graeme Lloyd
got just one out,
getting
a grounder and
escaping a big
jam in the ninth.
which sent the game into extra
innings. Ugueh Urbina pitched the 10th and got his first save.
With two outs in the 10th, Vidro singled to center off loser Jeff Fyhrie and moved to third on FernandoTatis' single. Todd Van Poppel relieved, and Guerrero hit line drive to Ricky Gutierrez.
The shortstop dove for the ball, but it glanced off his glove, allowing Vidro to score a run.
After rallying and tying the score with a three-run sixth, the Cubs blew a chance to win in the ninth. With one out, Eric Young reached on a single and then stole
second, getting a little help from backup catcher Sandy Martinez's wide throw.
The Cubs got another break when Scott Strickland, who kept checking second to keep Young from stealing another base, threw to second — only to find no one covering the bag. The ball rolled into the outfield and Young went to third on the error.
BillMueller lined out to firstand the Expos intentionally walked Sammy Sosa. That brought up former Expo Rondell White, who drew a walk, loading the bases
withtwoouts.
But Lloyd relieved Strickland, and he got pinch-hitter Augie Ojeda to ground out to third.
But the Cubs responded with a big sixth inning of their own. Gutierrez doubled down the first base line and drove in Sammy
In the sixth, Milton Bradley hita line drive to Young, but Young's throw to first was high and Matt Stairs couldn't make the tag. As the umpire called Bradley safe, Guerrero took off and easily beat the throw to the plate, putting Montreal ahead 4-1.
Sosa.
Gary Matthews Jr., pinch hit for Damon Buford and hit an RBI single. Joe Girardi followed with another RBI single, tying the game at 4-4.
Lieber struck out and ended the inning, leaving runners stranded at first and second.
The game also featured baseball's first ejection of the season. Catcher Michael Barrett was ejected in the eighth inning for arguing plate umpire Rick Reed's call of a ball on Joe Girardi's checked swing.
New pitcher helps White Sox whip Cleveland
The Associated Press
But bar-hopping in Cleveland couldn't be blamed
CLEVELAND — David Wells awoke with a nasty headache, body aches and an upset stomach.
Wells, weakened by flu-like symptoms that put his start in jeopardy, pitched like he almost always does against Cleveland, working six strong innings yesterday and leading the
Chicago White Sox to a 7-4 win against the Indians.
"I'm surprised how well I did today," said Wells, who wasn't sure what made him sick. "I had a good pasta dinner last night. Maybe I walked past somebody with a bug. I'm surprised I was able to pitch. I felt like somebody beat me up for two days."
It sure wasn't the Indians, who managed just four hits in six innings on the left.
Juan Gonzalez homered twice in his first game for Cleveland, which began its yearlong celebration of its 100th anniversary with a loss to the defending AL Central champions.
"It'sdisappointingbutit'snothingtolose any sleep over," said Cleveland's Jim Thome. "We sure wanted to beat them."
Making his debut with Chicago, Wells made sure the only fun Cleveland fans had came before the game. He limited the Indians to two runs — both homers — before leaving.
"I was so drained," he said. "I had nothing left."
The left-hander walked two, struck out three and improved to 17-4 in his career against the Indians.
Wells said that during warmups, he was heckled by a fan who made references to his deceased mother, similar to what happened before Game 5 of the 1998 AL championship series, when he pitched for the New York Yankees.
"Some idiot tried to be cute," said Wells. "You should have heard it last year when I got beat here. It was the biggest ovation I ever got. It's a personal thing — them against me."
Chicago, which last year ended Cleveland's run of five straight division titles, acquired Wells in a disputed trade this winter from Toronto, which gave the White Sox a proven ace, some attitude and a better chance of getting back to the post-season.
"This was a big step," Wells said. "This was a special day, being a member of the White Sox and contributing to the win. I don't see any problem with these guys winning the division."
Home runs shine Reds' new diamond
The Associated Press
CINCINNATI — Rafael Furcal loves what they've done to Cinergy Field.
The diminutive shortstop homered, hit two more balls to the warning track and drove in a career-high four runs yesterday as the Atlanta Braves pulled away to a 10-4 victory in the first game at the Cincinnati Reds' reconfigured field.
If the opener is any measure, the National League has a new launching pad. Four balls reached the warning track, two slammed off the draw-in-
walls and four more cleared them, nudged by a swirling wind.
Furcal's tiebreaking solo home off Dennys Reyes in the seventh soared over the eight-foot wall in left-center and was retrieved by a hard-hatted construction worker helping with the groundwork for a new ballpark next door.
"Yes, it's a surprise to me," Furcal said. "You don't see that every day. I had pretty good swings, and the ball carried pretty good."
The 5-foot-10, 165-pound shortstop hit only four homers in 455 at-bats last season, when he was the NL's Rookie of the Year. He also flew out to the wall in his first at-bat and had a sacrifice fly to the warning track.
"It was weird," said Braves catcher Javy Lopez, who hit two doubles off the wall. "Sometimes the wind was blowing out, sometimes it was blowing in. With the open (outfield), it makes the wind twist. It's going to be like that the whole year because of the shape of the stadium."
Andruw Jones also homered and Quilvio Veras drove in three runs with a bases-loaded double for Atlanta in the eighth.
All of Cincinnati's runs came off homers — Dmitri Young's solo shot and Sean Casey's three-run homer off John Burkett that tied the game at 4 in the sixth inning.
"Sometimes, the ball didn't carry. Sometimes, the ball took off," said Young, who had to run down Furcal's sacrifice fly to left field. "On Furcal's fly, I was playing in and that ball just kept going and going. On Andruw Jones' ball and the one that Lopez hit, I didn't know if they were that strong or if they got the ball up in the jet stream."
Marc Valdes got the victory by getting the final out in the sixth.
The new-look field drew raves from the crowd of 41,901 and blushes from the umpiring crew, which wasn't clear on the ground rules.
Second base umpire Bill Miller incorrectly called Lopez's double high off the 40-foot wall in center a home run in the fifth inning, a mistake that was quickly corrected and didn't figure in the outcome.
Neither did Ken Griffey Jr., one of the most prolific home-run hitters on opening day. The center fielder, who was out of the Reds' starting lineup because of a strained left hamstring, pinch-hit in the seventh and took a called third strike from Mike Remlinger, who froze him with a knee-high fastball on the outside corner.
Griffey has seven opening-day homers, tied with Eddie Mathews, Willie Mays, Babe Ruth and Carl Yastrzemski for second-most in major league history. Frank Robinson hit eight.
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