Rafael Montero won’t be the first rookie to make his major league debut in the Subway Series, and though some are concerned the stage may be too big for the right-hander, Tyler Clippard says that shouldn’t be the case.
“I consider myself lucky to have made my debut with that much attention,” said Clippard, who started his first game for the Yankees at Shea Stadium on May 20, 2007. “Some guys pinch hit or come into the eighth in a normal game, but I got to have mine under the spotlight on a Sunday night. It was like a fairy tale.”
It helped the right-hander pitched well, giving up just one run in six innings in a 6-2 Yankee win.
Clippard, now a reliever with the Nationals, who played in Arizona Tuesday night, remembers getting to the stadium at 1 p.m.
“I was in the clubhouse for hours by myself,” Clippard said. “I went out to the field, looked at the mound and said, ‘I’m here. There’s nothing I can do about it.’ ”
When the game started, however, he felt comfortable right away.
“I was 22 and very naive, which helped,” Clippard said. “Some injuries happened, they called and said ‘You’re coming up,’ and I said, ‘Sounds good.’ I didn’t have time to be nervous.”
He began by fanning Jose Reyes on three pitches.
“I wasn’t even thinking about striking him out,” Clippard said. “But once I got the first strike, I said, ‘I can do this.’ ”
Then, after asking for the lightest bat in the clubhouse, Clippard hit a double using Miguel Cairo’s bat, even though he hadn’t hit since high school.
“It couldn’t have gone any better,” Clippard said.
Less than a year later, David Robertson made his big league debut at Shea, in relief of Darrell Rasner, the same pitcher whose broken finger helped lead to Clippard’s call-up.
“It was intense,” Robertson said. “It was a two-run game.”
The first batter he faced was Oliver Perez.
“I almost hit him in the head and then he fouled a bunch of pitches off,” said Robertson, who gave up a run in two innings. “It was the first batter I saw and I couldn’t get him out. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, if the pitcher hits this good, I’m never going to last up here.’ ”
Both of them did and believe the pressure was a positive thing.
“No matter how big a stage it is, your instincts will take over and everything else washes away,” Clippard said. “Everything else washes away.”
“Once you do OK in that kind of environment, you kind of know you belong,” Robertson said. “It was a blur, but something you can draw on for a long time afterwards.”