Clemens Is Planning to Face the Red Sox

[stevo]

Clemens Is Planning to Face the Red Sox
By TYLER KEPNER
TORONTO, Sept. 11 — Roger Clemens rejoined the Yankees on Tuesday, throwing in the bullpen for Manager Joe Torre and the pitching coach Ron Guidry, and he said he planned to pitch Sunday at Fenway Park.

“Right now, I fully expect to,” said Clemens, who had cortisone shots in his inflamed right elbow last Wednesday. “I have full confidence that the two injections will help me. I had great relief that day. The next day, I was obviously sore, but I’m doing everything I can to push my body.”

Clemens was removed after four innings on Sept. 3 because of the elbow, and a magnetic resonance imaging test later showed fraying of the connective tissue. Clemens acknowledged a ligament problem.

“We’re comparing it to some guys that had some really nasty problems,” Clemens said. “I’ve definitely done something to it, and that’s why the muscle was pulling back at times. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.”

Clemens’s right foot has bled because of blisters during each of his last three starts, which caused him to change spikes and socks. Clemens said he believed the foot problem caused the elbow injury, the first of his career.

“I can handle the pain in my elbow,” Clemens said. “The problem that I had was once the muscle locked up, the doc told me from what he saw on the M.R.I., the muscle was pretty nasty. That’s just when I lost my control. That’s the thing that concerns me. I can’t be out there not knowing where the ball’s going to go.”

Clemens said he threw at about 80 percent exertion in the bullpen and did not feel elbow pain. He will repeat the exercise Thursday, and Torre said that if he could not start Sunday, Phil Hughes would.

“We just keep stressing that we don’t need a reasonable facsimile,” Torre said. “We need him.”

Clemens, 45, said his arm felt “like a piece of wood” during his last start. If it does not recover soon, he said, he could handle more cortisone injections.

“The amount that we put in, if I do have a reoccurring problem, I can do it a couple of more times,” Clemens said. “I hope that’s not the case, but I’m putting my body through the paces, and that’s just part of it.”

ACHING BACK FOR VIZCAíNO Reliever Luis Vizcaíno woke up Tuesday with back problems, Joe Torre said, delaying his return from a sore right shoulder.

Vizcaíno did not mention the back problem to reporters, but he said he needed a bit more time before feeling ready to pitch again. He said his sore shoulder felt better, but he added that he needed to test it by throwing a bullpen session Wednesday.

“Every year I throw a lot of games, 70-some games,” Vizcaíno said. “Sometimes you have a bad shoulder.”

But Vizcaíno, who has pitched more innings than he did for Arizona last season, said he had never experienced shoulder problems before.

OHLENDORF THE EXPLORER Why was the song “Backpack, Backpack!” from “Dora The Explorer” playing over the Rogers Center loudspeakers just before Tuesday’s game? Reliever Ross Ohlendorfwas lugging the pink Yankees backpack out to the visitors’ bullpen.

Transporting the backpack, which contains gum and candy, is usually the job of the youngest reliever. But Joba Chamberlain, 21, passed off the duty to Ohlendorf, 25, who probably never envisioned such chores while playing for Princeton.

Ohlendorf went 4-4 with a 4.81 earned run average in 26 games this season for Class A Tampa and Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Acquired from Arizona last January in the Randy Johnson trade, Ohlendorf was converted to relief this summer and threw fastballs at speeds up to 97 miles an hour. He pitched a perfect ninth with a strikeout Tuesday night.

Ohlendorf, whose best pitch is a sinker, could become a middle reliever and spot starter whose specialty is ground balls.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/sp...wanted= print

[cookson1]

I SAY HE WINS AND I DON'T NEED TO SEE A LINE ----- THIS MAY BE HIS LAST CHANCE TO SHOW OUT AGAINST BOSOX !!!!!!!!!! LOL GO BLUEJAYS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!