Cole Hamels and Roger Clemens battled to a 3-2, tenth-inning pitcher's duel won eventually by Rick White over Dave Borkowski. Clemens lasted just five and left with a strained groin with the game tied 1-1 (actually he trailed 1-0, but Houston scored in their half inning before Russ Springer relieved Clemens). Hamels lasted until the eighth but also left with the game tied, 2-2.

The 'Stros were on their sixth pitcher, and the Phils even worked Matt Smith, their compensation from for Bobby Abreu AND Corey Lidle—Ha Ha Ha!—before Chase Utley homered to keep the Phils slightly above .500 but still in striking distance of the NL wild card hunt as they do their typical best at asymptotically approach some semblance of a playoff race.

When the Reds topple the Giants 3-0 to pull into a fourth in the wild card hunt, three games back both with a stunning 69-70 record, you know you have a special kind of race.

Anyway, when Clemens and Hamels faced off, a rarity in baseball took place: a pitcher opposed another twice his age. Hamels is 22 while we no longer know how old Clemens is without splitting him in two and counting his rings.

I thought it would be interesting to look up all the faceoffs between two starters with one being twice the age of the other. I found 120 through 2005.

Clemens is the only man to appear on the list as both the younger and the elder pitcher.

Here are the pitchers who appeared the most as the elder pitchers in these sorts of faceoffs:

And here are the most appearances by a youngsters:

Finally, here are all 121 contests starting with the Hamels-Clemens game and going back to the between Pud Galvin (33) and Willie McGill (16) in the 1890 Players League.