Roger Clemens is 44 Years Old

As the New York Yankees' rotation woes continue, Roger Clemens looked all but ready for big league action last night.

The seven-time Cy Young Award winner allowed three runs and six hits in 5.1 innings while pitching for the Double-A Trenton Thunder against the Portland Sea Dogs. Of course, he thought he did awesome.

"So far so good," he said.

He threw 64 of 102 pitches for strikes and struggled a bit with his control, walking the bases loaded in the first inning and walking in the tying run in the sixth.

Clemens walked four, struck out five, hit a batter and threw a wild pitch. He gave up four extra base hits, including three doubles and a triple. Sweet performance.

In fact, he would have been the losing pitcher but the Thunder tied the game at 3-all in the ninth and won 4-3 in the 10th inning. By that time, about 95% of the record crowd had left, with most walking out after giving the Rocket a standing O when he was pulled for his pitch count.

After Clemens threw two balls to start the game, one heckler yelled "Come on! Throw a strike!"

If all goes well... Clemens could hop into New York's rotation Monday or Tuesday against the Toronto Blue Jays - one of his former teams.

However, if he wishes for more work, Roger might choose to make another minor league start, maybe for the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, before returning to the big leagues June 2nd or 3rd at Boston, his original club. Which would be perfect. Especially against Curt Schilling.

[Bloomberg]