Roger Clemens, 20-2

by David Fleitz

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Roger Clemens' 1985 Topps rookie card. I'll bet the Red Sox wish they'd never let him go.

Roger Clemens finally lost a game last week. Clemens had compiled a 20-1 record until then, and when he lost his seond game he missed his chance to surpass Elroy Face's 1959 record for best winning percentage by anyone with 13 or more decisions in a season. Face, a relief pitcher who went 18-1 for the Pirates in 1959, ended the season with a winning percentage of .947. Clemens, now 20-2, dropped to a still-impressive .909, still one of the best marks of all time.

Here's the list of the best pitching records in history for pitchers with one loss or fewer:

                   Team   Year     W-L

Face, Roy          PIT    1959    18-1 
Sutcliffe, Rick    CHI(N) 1984    16-1
Allen, Johnny      CLE    1937    15-1  
Regan, Phil        LA(N)  1966    14-1  
Zachary, Tom       NY(A)  1929    12-0  
Nash, Jim          KC     1966    12-1 
Lamp, Dennis       TOR    1985    11-0

Sutcliffe really went 20-5 in 1984, because he was 4-5 for Cleveland when he was traded to the Cubs and went 16-1 the rest of the way, winning the Cy Young Award. Perhaps he shouldn't be on the list.

As it stands right now, Clemens is still the all-time leader among pitchers with two losses.

                   Team   Year     W-L

Clemens, Roger     NY(A)  2001    20-2
Maddux, Greg       ATL    1995    19-2
Johnson, Randy     SEA    1995    18-2
Fitzsimmons, Fred  BRK    1940    16-2
Stanley, Bob       BOS    1978    15-2
Seaver, Tom        CIN    1981    14-2
Phillippe, Deacon  PIT    1910    14-2
Davis, Ron         NY(A)  1979    14-2

If Clemens ends the 2001 season without losing another game, he will be the only man ever to win 20 games with less than three losses. In fact, only three pitchers (besides Clemens) since 1900 have ever managed to win 20 games in a season with less than four losses:

                   Team   Year     W-L

Guidry, Ron        NY(A)  1978    25-3
Roe, Preacher      BRK    1951    22-3
Cone, David        NY(N)  1988    20-3

I remember something that Jim Palmer said in an interview in 1978, when Ron Guidry of the Yankees won 25 games and lost only 3. Palmer said that he was amazed at Guidry's record, because a starting pitcher will lose five or six games a year just by accident. Someone drops a fly ball, the bullpen blows a win, the umpire doesn't give you the calls, and other things like that will happen over the course of the season. None of those things happened to Guidry in 1978, and they aren't happening to Clemens either.

Clemens has, apparently, lived a charmed life this year. His earned run average, 3.48, sounds a little high for someone with 20 wins and only two losses. Clemens, who turned 39 last month, has pitched fewer innings than he has in the past, and he hasn't pitched any complete games this year. It seems likely that he gets a lot of his wins by pitching only six or seven innings, then allowing the bullpen to mop up.

Clemens has taken advantage of playing for a good team like the Yankees. He's had fantastic run support, he's been ably assisted by the Yankee bullpen, and he has a good defensive team behind him. I think that Clemens could pitch just as well for most other teams in the major leagues and go 14-11. This unprecedented 20-2 record is something of a fluke, and we'll see if his regular-season record translates into success in the playoffs.