Rocket's 7-11

Since his retirement lasted about three-and-a-half minutes, it shouldn't come as that much of a shock that Roger Clemens has simply picked up with the Astros where he left off with the Yankees. There were those who wondered whether the move to the National League would have an effect on Clemens' pitching - well, so far the answer is an emphatic 'no'. Last night Clemens gave up just three hits and one earned run in a seven-inning, eleven-strikeout performance against the Marlins.

Clemens now has the best pitching record in baseball this year (7-0) and he's ranked third in strikeouts (52, behind Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling) and third in ERA (1.99, behind Al Leiter and Jake Peavy), which is pretty good going for a guy who was supposed to spend this year playing golf.

Over the winter Clemens said that he intended to use his Astros' season ticket this year and catch a few games as a spectator, but that's not how it worked out. When Houston signed Andy Pettitte, Clemens was persuaded to head on down to Texas for one more season in the sun, and so far the two of them have given the Astros value for money. They're 10-1 combined for the season and have helped propel Houston to a 21-11 start and put them firmly atop the NL Central.