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Clemens sharp as Yankees edge Tigers

Aug 19, 2007 - 5:10 AM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- Roger Clemens persevered through another outing and eventually was rewarded for it.

Clemens worked in and out of trouble through six innings and Bobby Abreu hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth as the New York Yankees rallied for a 5-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday afternoon.

In his first start in 10 days due to a five-game suspension for intentionally hitting Toronto's Alex Rios with a pitch, Clemens (5-5) tied a season high by recording eight strikeouts but also allowed a season-worst 10 hits, including three by former Yankee Gary Sheffield and two by rookie Cameron Maybin.

"Sometimes you will your way through games and some are easier than others," Clemens said. "But I think this is the way it's going to be the rest of the way out. They're all going to be tough and the guys are grinding hard to try and make good things happen."

"It's so important for him, it's so exciting for him," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "For him to be pitching this long, you have to make adjustments along the way, and Roger Clemens as a youngster and even into his early-30s, he was a more power guy. Now he's pitching more to contact in situations more than anything else."

Maybin's second hit was his first career home run, a solo blast in the fifth that went off the top of the center field wall and gave Detroit a 2-1 lead.

The Tigers appeared to be poised for more when Sheffield doubled with two outs in the inning, but he was stranded as Magglio Ordonez grounded out to first. Detroit also had another chance to add to its lead when Clemens plunked Maybin to load the bases with two outs in the sixth, but two pitches later, Curtis Granderson popped out.

"I thought he was using his fastballs a lot better," Yankees catcher Jorge Posada said. "I thought he was throwing 92, 93 (miles-per-hour) consistently, so it was good."

Detroit stranded eight runners and went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position against Clemens.

"We just didn't hit very good today," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "We got some hits, but we didn't hit very good. Roger got some strikeouts when he needed to, which obviously he's still capable of doing, but we did a poor job hitting with men on."

Before the sixth, the Tigers' biggest opportunity came in the third, when they put runners on the corners with none out.

But after Granderson struck out, Clemens fanned former Yankee Marcus Thames. As Maybin attempted to steal second on the pitch, Clemens intercepted Posada's throw to second and chased down Brandon Inge, who broke home from third.

"It's a well-executed play," said Inge, a converted catcher. "I hadn't seen that in a long time. It kind of crossed my mind, too. As Marcus fouled off a pitch, I could see Posada setting his feet to throw in that direction. I'm curious to see if they changed it.

"From the way it looked, it looked like Posada was going to throw to second base. He was setting his feet in that direction. But then after that foul ball, they went out and had a discussion between the two of them, and I'm wondering if that was set from the beginning or if they may have changed it at that point."

No matter what the intention, Inge admitted he was just trying to make something happen.

"Either way, we were just being aggressive with that play," he said. "If he set his feet to go to second, then I was going to go no matter what. They made a good play."

According to Fox's telecast, it was the first time in 21 years a player had been put out catcher to pitcher on a steal attempt. The last instance occurred on July 22, 1986, when San Francisco's Bob Melvin threw out St. Louis' Vince Coleman.

"You've got to tip your hat to Clemens for getting huge outs," Tigers starter Chad Durbin said. "We had him on the ropes. He's done it before."

For five innings, it appeared Durbin (7-6) was going to overcome his teammates' futility as he had allowed just four hits, including Posada's 15th home run - a solo shot in the second.

But things quickly unraveled in the sixth for Durbin and the Tigers.

Derek Jeter began the comeback with a single to left and Abreu capped a seven-pitch at-bat with a home run that bounced off the foul pole in left field.

"When he hit and I see it wasn't slicing, you know you're going to run out of real estate eventually," Torre said. "I just said to Donnie (bench coach Don Mattingly), 'Wait a minute.' It just stayed there. It didn't slice at all."

After Abreu's 14th home run, Alex Rodriguez singled to knock out Durbin, who dropped his third straight start.

The Yankees, who won for the 11th time in 15 games, kept it going against reliever Tim Byrdak. The journeyman lefthander recorded two outs but also gave up an RBI single to Robinson Cano and was charged with another run when Andy Phillips lined a run-scoring base hit off Jason Grilli.

"They're getting the job done for us, and they did it again today," Clemens said. "Give our hitters credit."

After New York rallied, Torre turned things over to struggling reliever Kyle Farnsworth, who recently lost his role as one of the team's setup men.

Farnsworth actually earned some loud cheers from the 54,802 fans at Yankee Stadium when he fanned Sheffield for the second out of the seventh and ended the inning by striking out Ordonez on a 98 miles-per-hour fastball.

Luis Vizcaino allowed a hit in the eighth and Mariano Rivera hurled a scoreless ninth for his 20th save in 23 opportunities as the Yankees (69-54) remained five games of the first-place Boston Red Sox (74-49) in the American League East Division.

New York is one-half game behind the the Seattle Mariners (68-52) in the AL wild card race.

Ryan Rayburn drove in the other run for Detroit (67-56), which fell one game behind first-place Cleveland (67-54) in the AL Central. The Indians are visiting the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.