Red Sox Memories: Roger Clemens ties his own record with 20-strikeout performance

Boston Red Sox ace Roger Clemens tied his own major league record when he recorded 20 strikeouts in a game against the Detroit Tigers.

Saturday was a night to relive a classic Boston Red Sox performance. NESN aired the historic 20-strikeout game by Roger Clemens in 1996, which matched the major league record for strikeouts in a game that he set a decade earlier.

While the staggering strikeout total was the same, the circumstances couldn’t have been more different the second time. Clemens was a rising star in 1986 when he set the single-game strikeout record. He would go on to win the Cy Young and MVP awards that season while leading the Red Sox to the American League pennant.

When he tied that record in ’96, a 33-year old Clemens appeared to be fading into the “twilight” of his career. He posted a losing record at 10-13 that year and his 3.63 ERA was a far cry from his days as a perennial Cy Young contender who won four ERA titles in his first nine major league seasons.

One thing that stands out when watching this game is how empty the ballpark was. Fewer than 9,000 fans attended this game in Detroit. The Tigers were a miserable 51-win team that was buried deep in the basement of the AL East (yes, Detroit was in the same division as Boston in those days before the Tampa Bay Rays existed).

The Red Sox won 85 games to finish third in the division and only three games behind the Wild Card-winning Baltimore Orioles but even with The Rocket on the mound, they weren’t drawing fans to a mid-September game in Detroit.

Clemens allowed a one-out single in the bottom of the first inning. Alan Trammell swiped second base to get into scoring position as Ruben Sierra went down swinging for the first strikeout of the game.

Tony Clark chased a high fastball for strike three to end the inning, giving Clemens two strikeouts in the opening frame. As NESN analyst Jerry Remy pointed out during the broadcast, Clark was a great low ball hitter and Clemens struck him out three times on high fastballs the last time he faced him. Clark would be a strikeout victim three times again in this game.

Travis Fryman swung through strike three on a split-fastball in the dirt to lead off the second inning. The catcher had to throw to first to seal the out but it still went in the books as a strikeout. It was a sign of things to come, as Fryman would end up striking out a team-high four times that night.

The Rocket was rolling and kept the Tigers off the bases through the next four innings. He struck out the side in the second and fifth innings. Clemens punched out the side again in the sixth after allowing a lead-off base hit to Brad Ausmus, who stole second but never advanced further.

Clemens scattered five hits without a walk over nine innings. He didn’t allow an extra-base hit and Detroit couldn’t string together multiple hits in the same inning until the eighth.

A ground ball rolled past first baseman Mo Vaughn to lead off the eighth inning. Second baseman Jeff Frye stopped it from rolling to the outfield but couldn’t make the play. Vaughn was initially charged with an error but it was later wiped off the board and ruled a hit.

Phil Nevin followed with a line drive up the middle to put two on with nobody out. That was the only real threat the Tigers posed all game but Clemens quickly extinguished it with back-to-back strikeouts and a groundout to escape the inning.

His strikeout total reached 19 through the first eight innings. The Red Sox had a comfortable 4-0 lead but with history within reach, Clemens was sent back out to the mound for one final frame. A tiring Clemens only managed one more strikeout, sending Fryman down swinging to end the game.

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The 20th strikeout came on his 151st pitch of the game, a massive workload that would be considered borderline negligent by today’s standards. Even with the opportunity to break his record on the line, it was an unnecessary risk to push their ace that hard in a relatively meaningless game.

There have only been five 20-strikeout games in major league history. Clemens was the first to do it and he’s the only one who has done it twice. Kerry Wood, Randy Johnson, and Max Scherzer are the only other major league pitchers to match the accomplishment.

In addition to tying his single-game strikeout record, Clemens earned the 192nd win of his career and 38th shutout, tying the great Cy Young for the franchise record in both categories.

It would be the last win that Clemens would tally in a Red Sox uniform. He made only two more starts that season and came away from both without a win. Feeling that Clemens was nearing the end of the line, Boston let him walk as a free agent after that season. He signed a lucrative three-year deal with the Blue Jays and immediately revitalized his career with consecutive Cy Young seasons before Toronto traded him to the Yankees.

Clemens would pitch 11 more seasons for three different organizations after leaving Boston, winning four more Cy Young Awards and piling up nearly as many strikeouts as he did in his 13 years with the Red Sox.

His second act was clearly fueled by substances that enhanced his performance and prolonged his career but even before his legacy was tainted by scandal, Clemens had enough in the tank to produce one of his most dominant performances near the end of his tenure with the Red Sox.