BALTIMORE — Roger Clemens will get another opportunity to earn his 350th win. His run of consecutive starts with a strikeout, however, is history.

The 44-year-old Clemens was denied the landmark victory by the Baltimore Orioles, who used a four-run sixth inning and an overpowering pitching performance by Erik Bedard to beat the Yankees 4–0 last night.

Clemens (1–3) was trying to become the eighth pitcher with 350 career wins. He blanked Baltimore through five innings, but his bid fell apart under a barrage of hits in the sixth, including a three-run homer by Aubrey Huff.

Clemens’s run of 200 consecutive starts with at least one strikeout also ended. It was the thirdlongest run by an active major leaguer, behind Pedro Martinez (293) and Javier Vasquez (237).

Clemens is second on the career strikeout list with 4,626, trailing only Nolan Ryan (5,714).

In his fourth start since joining the Yankees on June 9, the righthander allowed four runs, seven hits, and three walks in six innings. He has a 5.32 ERA.

Clemens was outdone by Bedard (6–4), who gave up two hits and a walk in seven brilliant innings. The left-hander struck out eight and did not allow a runner past first base.

Jamie Walker allowed a single in the eighth and Chad Bradford yielded two singles in the ninth. Bradford bounced to back to strike out Jorge Posada and retire Bobby Abreu on a groundout to first to end the game.

Clemens allowed only three hits through the first five innings, but after throwing two pitches in the sixth he was visited at the mound by the Yankees trainer, Steve Donohue. The cause of the discomfort was not apparent, but Clemens continued on.

He was not, however, effective.

Chris Gomez singled and Nick Markakis drew a walk before Ramon Hernandez singled in the game’s first run. Huff then ended his career-long home run drought at 143 at-bats, driving a 1–1 pitch into the left-field seats.

Huff’s first homer since May 9 all but guaranteed the Yankees their fourth straight loss and seventh in eight games.

It also denied Yankees manager Joe Torre his 2,010th win, which would have placed him alone in ninth place on the career list.

Before the game, Clemens, Torre, and Yankees were all in agreement: If the Rocket earned his milestone victory, everyone in the clubhouse would benefit.

“If somebody else gets a base hit — say it’s his 2,000th hit — that doesn’t necessarily mean (we’re) going to win,” Torre said. “We can all pull for the same thing tonight, based on the fact that we need a win and Roger would like one.”

It didn’t happen.

Bedard struck out the first four batters before yielding a secondinning single to Posada. Clemens gave up a one-out single in the first inning, then got Markakis to hit into a double play.

In the second, Melvin Mora hit a comebacker off Clemens’s leg, but the pitcher quickly retrieved the ball and made the throw to first.