The ballboy, it seemed, was around the plate as much as anyone who pitched in a Sox uniform last night.
Matt Clement, in 4 2/3 innings, threw 45 balls among his 91 pitches, a seemingly unsightly total until Jermaine Van Buren (24 pitches, 14 balls) followed. (``I guess I set the precedent with the little bit of control problem I had," Clement said.) Clement's major mistake was a two-run homer, Van Buren's mistakes the single and three walks he issued in the sixth, when he walked in a run and exited with the bases loaded, handing off to Manny Delcarmen, whose 3-and-1 fastball Justin Morneau sent soaring to the opposite field for a grand slam.
Clement, who hadn't pitched in nine days and had pitched just once in 15 days, will return home to Boston this morning for an MRI of his pitching shoulder. The righthander, who is 5-5 with a 6.61 ERA, suffered last night through the same issues that plagued him in his previous start, June 4 at Detroit. ``I started to feel the same way I felt in Detroit," he said. ``It's on the side of my biceps and shoulder, I guess like a dead feeling, not like a dead arm. A dead arm I would pitch through. Something that slows me up and I guess scares my body enough that it affects the way I throw.
``It's tough to go out there and pitch and not know what your arm's going to do each time. I honestly don't think it's anything serious. Hopefully, getting it checked [today], if everything's clear that will give me a little peace of mind."
At this point, though, it's hard to believe that anything can change between now and Monday, when Clement is scheduled to pitch again.
One statistic above all encapsulates that his arm and stuff has lost its snap: Clement, in 235 career games through May 24, had failed to record a strikeout in a game just twice. In his past three games he has failed to strike out anybody in two of those games. This, realize, is a guy who twice blew away 13 in a game as a Chicago Cub and three times whiffed 12 in a game.
