World Series: Scherzer vs. Cole and the best matchups ever
By Bill Felber
Roger Clemens vs. Jose Contreras, 351 ERA+
Roger Clemens had such a long and quality career that it’s difficult to argue he was at his peak with the 2005 National League champion Houston Astros. Nevertheless, the record shows that the 42-year-old Clemens went 13-8 with a league-leading 1.87 ERA over 211 innings, striking out 185 opponents in the process. It all added up to a league-leading 226 ERA+.
Contreras, a 33-year-old veteran of Cuban baseball in his third major league season, went 15-7 for the American League champion Chicago White Sox. A member of an under-appreciated rotation that also included Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland, and Freddy Garcia, he ran up a 125 ERA+ in his 32 starts and 205 innings.
The two were pitted against one another in the Opening Game of that season’s World Series…but not for long. When the Sox tied into Clemens for three runs on four hits in the first two innings, Astros manager Phil garner lifted his ace in favor of Wandy Rodriguez. The Astros rallied to tie the game in the third, only to see Rodriguez surrender the lead for good in the fourth.
Chicago won 5-3 and went on to sweep the Astros, in the process thwarting Garner’s hopes of saving Clemens for additional use later in the Series.