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Clemens, Yankees go for second straight win vs. Tigers

Aug 18, 2007 - 12:49 PM Detroit (67-55) at NY Yankees (68-54) 3:55 pm EDT

BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- The New York Yankees are doing a slightly better job than the Detroit Tigers in trying to catch the Seattle Mariners in the American League wild card race.

The Yankees aim for a second straight win when they continue a four-game series with the Tigers on Saturday.

New York picked up a 6-1 victory on Friday behind eight strong innings from Andy Pettitte and two home runs from Jason Giambi. The win kept the Yankees one-half game behind the Mariners (67-52) in the wild card standings and dropped the Tigers 1 1/2 games back.

Roger Clemens (4-5, 4.00 ERA) will try to get the Yankees closer on Saturday. The future Hall of Famer has not lived up to the nearly $1 million per start that he is earning this season, but he may be starting to get into the groove.

In his last outing, the 45-year-old righthander earned his 352nd career win against the Toronto Blue Jays in 9-2 victory on August 7, allowing one run and two hits in six-plus innings.

Clemens was ejected from the contest in the seventh after hitting Alex Rios in retaliation for Alex Rodriguez being plunked earlier in the contest. The seven-time Cy Young Award winner was suspended for five games for his actions.

Clemens has had a great deal of success against the Detroit in his career, going 22-11 record with a 3.95 ERA in 42 starts.

The Tigers will counter with the struggling Chad Durbin (7-5, 4.68). The righthander has bounced back and forth between the bullpen and the rotation this season and has lost two starts in a row, lasting just 4 1/3 innings in each while yielding a total of eight earned runs.

Detroit, which posted an 8-5 win in Thursday's opener, is just one-half game behind the Cleveland Indians (67-54) in the American League Central.