He was the best of pitchers; he was the worst of pitchers.

Roger Clemens was both horrible and brilliant yesterday in the Astros 9-3 victory over the Atlanta braves. Before that game, he had never one a playoff game 1, and the Astros have still never won a playoff series. There is still more work left to do, but after going 1-9 vs. Atlanta in their last three post-season series, things are looking better than they ever have before.

If you are a Clemens fan, or an Astros fan, or even a plain old baseball fan, you will enjoy this Jayson Stark article on the pitcher and the game:

It isn't quite true that the first four innings of this game lasted longer than Clemens' retirement. But it was close.

Over those first four innings, the Braves moved eight runners into scoring position. How six walks, two wild pitches, three hits, one error and one stolen base translated into a grand total of one Atlanta run (and no earned runs) is hard to explain.

But there's no better way to sum it up than this:

That was Roger Clemens, official living legend, out there.

At 3 pm today, Roy Oswalt gets his turn. Houston made the playoffs during his rookie year (2001: 14-3, 2.73) but he was injured at the end of the season and did not pitch in the post-season. Should be a very interesting game.