Clemens replaced on Yankees postseason roster

By Larry Fine

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hall-of-Fame bound hurler Roger Clemens may have thrown his last major league pitch after the New York Yankees replaced the burly right-hander on their postseason roster on Monday with lefty reliever Ron Villone.

Clemens, 45, gave up three runs in 2 and one-third innings as New York's starter in Sunday's playoff game against the Cleveland Indians before leaving with a strained left hamstring.

Clemens, who was returning to the mound after missing three weeks due to a hamstring injury, will be ineligible for the American League Championship Series should the Yankees advance, under major league rules.

New York, on the brink of elimination, came back to win Sunday's game 8-4 and keep their season alive. The Yankees trail the Indians 2-1 in the best-of-five American League Divisional Series heading into Monday's game.

The winner of the series will play the Boston Red Sox in the league championship series for a spot in the World Series.

Villone, 37, was 0-0 this season with a 4.25 earned run average in 37 appearances with the Yanks this season.

Clemens, who was paid more than $18 million to join the Yankees in mid-season, went 6-6 with a 4.18 ERA in 18 games for the Bronx Bombers in the regular season.

A veteran of 24 big league seasons, Clemens is baseball's active leader in wins (354), complete games (118), shutouts (46), innings pitched (4,916) and strikeouts (4,672).

Yankees manager Joe Torre said he did not know if Clemens would be able to pitch if New York reached the World Series.

"Roger will certainly be honest with us. He's always been that," Torre told reporters before Monday's game.

"But we know one thing, he wasn't going to be ready for the next round. Hopefully he'll be able to do a little patch work and be ready.

"We don't know if he'll be all right for the World Series," added Torre. "We hope we have an opportunity to find out."