Matt Clement

So, I've been looking for a good reason for this all day long, and I haven't found one, and there hasn't been as much uproar in Boston as I would have expected, but yesterday Matt Clement essentially took himself out of the game.

I don't know if anyone else saw this, but Clement pitched five strong innings against the Tigers, allowing only one run. In the sixth, they started hitting him hard, and some good defense and good luck limited Detroit to only two runs, making the score 4-3, Sox.

I figured for sure he wouldn't have come out for the seventh, since he had the lead and it looked like he was starting to lose it, but there he was, with only Jermaine Van Buren warming up. He threw one pitch, softly, before Varitek ran out to talk to him. Varitek almost immediately motioned to the dugout as if Clement was hurt, and Francona and the trainer came out to talk to him. But before Francona even reached the mound, Clement started towards the dugount, handing Terry the ball on the way.

Van Buren came in, and when they came back from commercials, Clement was in the clubhouse, but the trainer was still in the dugout. After the game, they said that Clement was "fatigued," and that's why he came out. But it really looked like he just didn't want to be out there any more, and if Francona wasn't going to pull him with the lead to give him a boost of confidence, he decided, then he'd pull himself.

I'd never seen anything like it before, and I still really don't even know what happened. But one thing I'm sure of is that I'm glad Clement's not pitching against the Yankees this week.