A TEAM "FIT TO BE TIED"
Matt Clement (5-0) out-pitches John Smoltz

May 22, 2005 ... John Smoltz couldn't get out of the fifth inning because his pitch count rose to 112 after allowing the Red Sox two runs in the inning. Matt Clement limited the Braves to two runs on four hits in the Sox' first complete game of the season, a 5-2 win over Atlanta at Fenway Park.

In 4 1/3 more innings, Clement threw two fewer pitches in beating Smoltz, whom he called a future Hall of Famer. Clement credited the Boston hitters in raising Smoltz's pitch count, even though for most of Smoltz's work the Sox were leaving runners on base. Smoltz's innings had pitch counts of 27, 24, 22, 9, and 30. Sox hitters fouled off pitches 25 times. Clement had 15 or fewer pitches in eight of his nine innings. Only in the fourth, when he threw 24 pitches as the Braves scored twice, did Clement exceed that number.

Atlanta's pitchers threw 175 pitches and the Sox crushed 14 hits, led by Bill Mueller's three-hit day, while Manny Ramirez went 3 for 5 with a two-run homer to break out of a 2-for-19 (.105) funk. Ramirez's homer, which traveled to the Braves' bullpen in right field, was his 11th and produced RBIs Nos. 37 and 38.

But the wearing down of Smoltz took place much earlier. In his 27-pitch first inning, Edgar Renteria, who went 0 for 4, worked Smoltz for a nine-pitch walk. That was followed by David Ortiz's single to right field, sending Renteria to third. But the Sox squandered a good opportunity as Ramirez and Trot Nixon made outs. The Sox made Smoltz work again in the second, but Renteria left the bases loaded with a strikeout (to a roar of boos from the restless Fenway crowd). Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis, whose single to left in the fifth on a 2-2 pitch after fouling off three straight Smoltz offerings scored Ortiz with the first Boston run.

Clement mowed down the first nine batters he faced, but the Braves got to him in the fourth when he allowed a leadoff double to Rafael Furcal, who eventually scored on Marcus Giles's single to center. Clement momentarily lost his calm, hitting Adam LaRoche and allowing a single to Andruw Jones to load the bases. Catcher Johnny Estrada hit a sacrifice fly, accounting for the second Braves' run. But Clement started a streak of 14 straight outs before Pete Orr led off the ninth with a single.

In the fifth, Ortiz worked a walk and Nixon reached when third baseman Wilson Betemit bobbled his soft one-hopper near the bag. In between, Ramirez had an eight-pitch at-bat that concluded with a fly to right. After Jason Varitek grounded into a fielder's choice, Youkilis hit his RBI single to left, and Mueller followed with a single to center, scoring Varitek and ending Smoltz's day.

By the sixth, the Sox' offense was now drawing blood rather than delivering body punches. Ortiz's double to left knocked in Johnny Damon, who had singled to lead off the inning off Roman Colon. Then Ramirez delivered his two-run shot to right, a sign that his swing is finally getting right.

Well, they all got the Braves yesterday. Even hitters like Renteria, who continued his dismal start but somehow kept swinging and causing Smoltz to work his way out of the game.