page_title: Roger Clemens
section_title: Boston Red Sox (1984–1996)
hierarchical_section_title: Roger Clemens / Professional career / Boston Red Sox (1984–1996)
caption_attribution_description: Taken @ Fenway Park on 8/17/1996. The first three images are a sequence of the same pitch. In the fourth image, I combined the sequence in the same image.
context_page_description: William Roger Clemens, nicknamed "Rocket", is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball for four teams, most notably the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. Clemens was one of the most dominant pitchers in major league history, tallying 354 wins, a 3.12 earned run average, and 4,672 strikeouts, the third-most all time. An 11-time All-Star and two-time World Series champion, he won seven Cy Young Awards during his career, more than any other pitcher in history. Clemens was known for his fierce competitive nature and hard-throwing pitching style, which he used to intimidate batters.
  Clemens debuted in the MLB in 1984 with the Red Sox, whose pitching staff he anchored for 12 years. In 1986, he won the American League Cy Young Award, the AL Most Valuable Player Award, and the All-Star Game MVP Award, and he struck out an MLB-record 20 batters in a single game. After the 1996 season, in which he achieved his second 20-strikeout performance, Clemens left Boston via free agency and joined the Toronto Blue Jays.
context_section_description: Clemens was selected in the first round (19th overall) of the 1983 MLB draft by the Boston Red Sox and quickly rose through the minor league system, making his MLB debut on May 15, 1984. An undiagnosed torn labrum threatened to end his career early; he would successfully undergo arthroscopic surgery at the hands of the then relatively unknown Dr. James Andrews.
  In 1986, Clemens won the American League MVP award, finishing with a 24-4 record, 2.48 ERA, and 238 strikeouts. Clemens started the 1986 All-Star Game in the Astrodome and was named the Most Valuable Player of the contest by throwing three perfect innings and striking out two. He also won the first of his seven Cy Young Awards. When Hank Aaron said that pitchers should not be eligible for the MVP, Clemens responded: "I wish he were still playing. I'd probably crack his head open to show him how valuable I was." Clemens was the only starting pitcher since Vida Blue in 1971 to win a league MVP award until Justin Verlander won the award in 2011.
  On April 29, 1986, Clemens became the first pitcher in MLB history to strike out 20 batters in a nine-inning game, against the Seattle Mariners at Boston's Fenway Park. Following his performance, Clemens made the cover of Sports Illustrated which carried the headline "Lord of the K's [strikeouts]." Other than Clemens, only Kerry Wood and Max Scherzer have matched the total. (Randy Johnson fanned 20 batters in nine innings on May 8, 2001. However, as the game went into extra innings, it is not categorized as occurring in a nine-inning game. Tom Cheney holds the record for any game: 21 strikeouts in 16 innings.) Clemens attributes his switch from what he calls a "thrower" to a "pitcher" to the partial season Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver spent with the Red Sox in 1986.
  Boston came back from a 3–1 deficit in the American League Championship Series to the California Angels to advance to the 1986 World Series. After a victory in game five, Boston led 3 games to 2 over the New York Mets with Clemens set to start game six at Shea Stadium. Clemens who was pitching on five days rest started strong by striking out eight while throwing a no-hitter through four innings. In the top of eighth and with Boston ahead 3–2, manager John McNamara sent rookie Mike Greenwell to pinch hit for Roger Clemens. It was initially said that Clemens was removed from the game due to a blister forming on one of his fingers, but both he and McNamara dispute this. Clemens said to Bob Costas on an MLB Network program concerning the 1986 postseason that McNamara decided to pull him despite Clemens wanting to pitch. McNamara said to Costas that Clemens "begged out" of the game. The Mets rallied and took both game six and seven to win the World Series.
  The Red Sox had a miserable 1987 season, finishing at 78-84, though Clemens won his second consecutive Cy Young Award with a 20-9 record, 2.97 ERA, 256 strikeouts, and seven shutouts. He was the first AL pitcher with back-to-back 20-win seasons since Tommy John won 20 with the Yankees in 1979 and '80. Boston rebounded with success in 1988 and 1990, clinching the AL East Division each year, but were swept by the Oakland Athletics in each ALCS matchup. Clemens led the American League in 1988 with 291 strikeouts and a career-high 8 shutouts. On September 10, 1988, Clemens threw a one-hitter against the Cleveland Indians at Fenway Park. Dave Clark's one-out single in the eighth inning was the only hit Clemens allowed in the game. In a 9-1 victory over Cleveland on April 13, 1989, Clemens recorded his 1,000 career strikeout by fanning Brook Jacoby with the bases loaded in the second inning.
  In 1991, Clemens captured his third Cy Young Award (finishing 2nd in the balloting in 1990 and 3rd in 1992) with an 18-10 record, 2.62 ERA, and 241 strikeouts. On June 21, 1989, Clemens surrendered the first of 609 home runs in the career of Sammy Sosa.
  Clemens accomplished the 20-strikeout feat twice, the only player ever to do so. The second performance came more than 10 years later, on September 18, 1996 against the Detroit Tiger
caption: Clemens pitches at Fenway Park, 1996
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