Tigers slugger Gary Sheffield refuted Wednesday charges that he took performing-enhancing drugs, an assertion made by a chemist for the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.

Patrick Arnold said on an HBO interview that Sheffield and San Francisco Giants star Barry Bonds had each used anabolic steroids. The New York Times reported the interview Wednesday in a copyrighted story.

Arnold has been credited with creating “the clear,” a steroid that BALCO provided to athletes.

“I’ve never seen him, I don’t even know his name,” Sheffield said Wednesday, alluding to Arnold a few hours before the Tigers met the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field. “He’s a stranger to me.

• Tigers’ Sheffield disputes steroid claim by chemist