Sox win a clean contest

''I kept looking at Smoltzie's pitch count and I was amazed at how [the Sox' hitters] did it," said Clement, who improved his record to 5-0 as his ERA dipped to 3.34. ''Give our guys credit. He had a lot of strikes, he wasn't walking people [Smoltz walked three], and he got his pitch count up quick and that's what won the game. He didn't break. He kept bending, and it was an honor for me to share the mound with somebody like that. He does the job on and off the field. He's the kind of person you want to look up to."

Smoltz's innings had pitch counts of 27, 24, 22, 9, and 30. Sox hitters fouled off pitches 25 times.

''I'm disappointed that I had to throw as many pitches as I did to get that far into the game," Smoltz said. ''They lead the league in pitches per at-bat. I guess that's a credit to their lineup."

Clement had 15 or fewer pitches in eight of his nine innings. Only in the fourth, when he threw 24 pitches as the Braves scored twice, did Clement exceed that number.

''Efficient usually doesn't get put next to my name," Clement said. ''I don't think everything was perfect, but everything worked. I made pitches when I had to. I was getting ahead."

The Sox took two out of three from the Braves in the first phase of interleague play. It was the first win by the Sox over the Braves in six Fenway series.

Atlanta's pitchers threw 175 pitches and the Sox crushed 14 hits, led by Bill Mueller's three-hit day, while Manny Ramirez went 3 for 5 with a two-run homer to break out of a 2-for-19 (.105) funk. Ramirez's homer, which traveled to the Braves' bullpen in right field, was his 11th and produced RBIs Nos. 37 and 38.

But the wearing down of Smoltz took place much earlier.

In his 27-pitch first inning, Edgar Renteria, who went 0 for 4, worked Smoltz for a nine-pitch walk. That was followed by David Ortiz's single to right field, sending Renteria to third. But the Sox squandered a good opportunity as Ramirez and Trot Nixon made outs. The Sox made Smoltz work again in the second, but Renteria left the bases loaded with a strikeout (to a roar of boos from the restless Fenway crowd).