The Lineup Card

Roger Clemens will get a taste of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry a little early in the next stop of his comeback tour. The Rocket is slated to make his second tuneup start on Wednesday, moving up a level from Single-A Tampa to Double-A Trenton, where he'll face, you guessed it, the Portland Sea Dogs.

Now I have an unusually soft spot for the Sea Dogs as they are my true, actual hometown team, and they currently sport two of my favorite pitching prospects - Michael Bowden and Clay Buchholz. Unfortuantely, Clemens won't have to travel to Portland - by design of course - where he could really get ready for the rivalry.

Portland is squarely in Red Sox territory so I have no doubt the fans there would boo the ever-loving crap out of him. Heck, there's even a replica Green Monster in left at Hadlock Field (see above).

There's reason to believe Wednesday could potentially be Clemens' last start in the minor league. With the Yankees loss to the Mets Friday, New York is 10 games out of first place, their biggest deficit under Joe Torre, and even though it's May you can feel the urgency creeping out of the Bronx. "You understand the pace the Red Sox are setting, so they're in good shape and good pitching shape," said Clemens earlier this week. "If they're rolling like that, we're gonna have to get things going as quickly as possible."

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