Wang stuff
The key to Chien-Ming Wang’s rising strikeout total - 10 against the Mets - is increased use of his slider and change-up.
"He’s always had the slider," Torre said, "but now he’s learned to command it. [Ron Guidry] threw a pretty good slider in his career, and he’s been showing him how to grip it and release it. You should see those two in the bullpen, it’s a father-and-son thing."
The slider give Wang something that sweeps right to left and misses bats, to go with his natural sinker. He mixes in a change-up to give the hitter something else. So he is a more complete pitcher now.
A-Rod went 11-for-29 with five homers on the 8-1 homestand. Not much to say, he’s having an amazing year. Must be something to that top-hand release he has, when he doesn’t jump out in front trying too hard to pull the ball like he did so much last year. The ball has overspin coming off his bat and he gets incredible carry, another tape-measure shot tonight.
Damon looks like he’s going to be Okay. ...
Jeter has a 12-game hitting streak, the third streak of that length or longer this year. ... Paul LoDuca left with a bruised triceps, after being hit by a pitch. David Wright’s hitting streak ended at 17.
Melky Cabrera, who got an infield hit, a ball botched by the pitcher, snapped an 0-for-13 slump. He has not looked good at the plate, though he’s key in CF. Cairo with another great defensive play, turning a 3-6-3 DP on Reyes, which is not easy. Reyes was also caught stealing in the game. Whatever they hit, I would leave Cabrera and Cairo in there at the bottom of the order. I wouldn’t mess with anything right now. If Damon doesn’t play in the NL parks, they’ll have to find a lead-off hitter. Maybe Cabrera, maybe Jeter with Cairo second.
Torre went into the ninth with a plan to let Wang pitch through Wright, and use Myers for Delgado. When Wang got Wright to hit into the DP, he was at 113 pitches and Torre stuck to his plan. The crowd booed, but what would anyone say if Wang stayed in for 120 pitches and came out with a sore shoulder? They let him go that long because he’ll have an extra day before his next start, but Wang has had a stiff neck, so it was a little risky as it was. Anyway, he saved the bullpen, which now has two days off before what could be a grueling series in Colorado.
I’m so glad we had this time together, just to have a laugh or sing a song ...
Quick programming note here. We’re going through some changes at the Courant, and I will not be going on this next trip with the Yankees and I will likely have an new assignment soon. For now, we’re suspending the Yankees blog - I can’t see posting from my couch, I woudn’t be giving you anything you couldn’t see yourselves on TV.
We’re still deciding what direction to take. But for now, I’m tugging my ear lobe and saying good night. Thanks to all for stopping by and leaving comments. It’s been great fun for me.
- DOM
Wang Fans 10 to Lead Yankees Over Mets
June 18, 2007 - 1:28am
By MIKE FITZPATRICK
AP Baseball Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - Alex Rodriguez and Chien-Ming Wang have been unstoppable the past few weeks, two big reasons the New York Yankees look almost unbeatable right now.
Rodriguez hit his major league-leading 27th homer, Wang came within one out of a complete game and the Yankees won the second Subway Series of the season Sunday night with an 8-2 victory over the stumbling Mets.
"We know we caught them at a bad time," Johnny Damon said. "We know we’re playing very well right now."
Damon and Jorge Posada also homered, helping the Yankees win for the 11th time in 12 games. They finished their finest homestand in nine years with an 8-1 record and split the six-game season series with their crosstown rivals for the third straight year.
Wang (7-4) struck out a career-high 10 and walked one. He scattered six hits, sending the NL East leaders to their 11th defeat in 13 games.
"If we had an explanation, we would have fixed it by now," Mets slugger Carlos Delgado said. "It’s not an excuse, but we haven’t been playing the Bad News Bears. We’ve been playing some pretty good teams playing pretty good baseball."
The Big Apple neighbors are headed in opposite directions _ the Mets have lost five consecutive series, while the Yankees (35-32) have won five in a row to move a season-best three games over .500.
Wang is on a roll himself, allowing only four runs in his past three starts covering 24 2-3 innings. Runner-up for the AL Cy Young Award last year, the sinkerballer has won four straight outings and six of seven overall.
"Wang is remarkable," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "He’s sort of like a knuckleball pitcher. You know what’s coming and there’s really nothing you can do about it."
Wang gave up an RBI single to Carlos Beltran in the ninth and left to a standing ovation after David Wright grounded into a double play. Mike Myers struck out Delgado on three pitches to end it.
Rodriguez hit a mammoth homer and knocked in three early runs as the Bronx Bombers jumped out to a 6-0 lead against ex-Yankee Orlando Hernandez (3-3), the second consecutive Mets starter to get roughed up. The right-hander allowed six runs and seven hits in 4 2-3 innings, one day after Tom Glavine was tagged for seven runs and eight hits in four-plus innings while blowing three early leads.
"I made a couple of mistakes tonight. Just a rough day," said Hernandez, who fell to 0-4 with a 5.70 ERA in four career starts against the Yankees.
The last time the Yankees lost no more than once on a homestand of at least nine games was August 1998, when they went 10-1, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Yankees, who stayed 8 1/2 games behind first-place Boston in the AL East, begin a nine-game road trip Tuesday night in Colorado.
Delgado hit an RBI double for the Mets in the seventh. Jose Reyes, a nuisance to the Yankees all series, was cut down on a pitchout in the fourth when he tried to steal second with the Mets trailing 5-0. He also grounded into a double play for only the second time this season.
"Maybe something that’ll never happen again," Torre said.
Mets catcher Paul Lo Duca left in the fourth with a bruised left triceps, three innings after he was hit by a pitch from Wang. Hernandez hit Bobby Abreu in the right shoulder with a fifth-inning pitch.
In the first, Rodriguez hit a two-run shot to the back corner of the Mets’ bullpen in left field well beyond the row of retired numbers _ a drive that appeared to travel at least 450 feet. The Yankees don’t estimate home run distances the way many teams do.
Rodriguez, who connected for the second consecutive day, has eight homers in his last 14 games and 26 RBIs in his past 12. It was his 491st career home run.
A-Rod made a diving stop at third base to rob Delgado in the second. Miguel Cairo hit a two-out RBI double in the bottom half and Damon followed with a run-scoring single to make it 4-0.
Abreu tripled leading off the third and scored when Beltran made a difficult, running catch on Rodriguez’s deep sacrifice fly to center. Rodriguez has 73 RBIs, nine more than anyone else in the majors.
"That’s a pretty good season already," Damon said. "The guy’s amazing. He definitely has a bunch of records in his future."
Damon homered to the short porch in right leading off the fifth, his fourth of the year and first since May 30 at Toronto.
The Mets needed help to get on the scoreboard. Wright reached on a wild pitch when he struck out with two down in the seventh, and Delgado followed with an RBI double.
Rodriguez doubled in the eighth and Posada hit a two-run shot off Aaron Heilman.
"When they start swinging the bats, they’re hard to beat," Wright said.
Notes:@ The Yankees have won 19 of their last 20 interleague series at home. ... Wright went 0-for-4, ending his 17-game hitting streak. ... Torre has 2,008 victories as a manager, one behind Leo Durocher for ninth place on the career list. ... Derek Jeter extended his hitting streak to 12 games.
(Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
New York Yankees’ Chien Ming-Wang delivers a pitch against the New York Mets in their interleague baseball game at Yankee Stadium in New York, Sunday, June 17, 2007.(AP Photo/Kathy Willens) By MIKE FITZPATRICK
AP Baseball Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - Alex Rodriguez and Chien-Ming Wang have been unstoppable the past few weeks, two big reasons the New York Yankees look almost unbeatable right now.
Rodriguez hit his major league-leading 27th homer, Wang came within one out of a complete game and the Yankees won the second Subway Series of the season Sunday night with an 8-2 victory over the stumbling Mets.
"We know we caught them at a bad time," Johnny Damon said. "We know we’re playing very well right now."
Damon and Jorge Posada also homered, helping the Yankees win for the 11th time in 12 games. They finished their finest homestand in nine years with an 8-1 record and split the six-game season series with their crosstown rivals for the third straight year.
Wang (7-4) struck out a career-high 10 and walked one. He scattered six hits, sending the NL East leaders to their 11th defeat in 13 games.
"If we had an explanation, we would have fixed it by now," Mets slugger Carlos Delgado said. "It’s not an excuse, but we haven’t been playing the Bad News Bears. We’ve been playing some pretty good teams playing pretty good baseball."
The Big Apple neighbors are headed in opposite directions _ the Mets have lost five consecutive series, while the Yankees (35-32) have won five in a row to move a season-best three games over .500.
Wang is on a roll himself, allowing only four runs in his past three starts covering 24 2-3 innings. Runner-up for the AL Cy Young Award last year, the sinkerballer has won four straight outings and six of seven overall.
"Wang is remarkable," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "He’s sort of like a knuckleball pitcher. You know what’s coming and there’s really nothing you can do about it."
Wang gave up an RBI single to Carlos Beltran in the ninth and left to a standing ovation after David Wright grounded into a double play. Mike Myers struck out Delgado on three pitches to end it.
Rodriguez hit a mammoth homer and knocked in three early runs as the Bronx Bombers jumped out to a 6-0 lead against ex-Yankee Orlando Hernandez (3-3), the second consecutive Mets starter to get roughed up. The right-hander allowed six runs and seven hits in 4 2-3 innings, one day after Tom Glavine was tagged for seven runs and eight hits in four-plus innings while blowing three early leads.
"I made a couple of mistakes tonight. Just a rough day," said Hernandez, who fell to 0-4 with a 5.70 ERA in four career starts against the Yankees.
The last time the Yankees lost no more than once on a homestand of at least nine games was August 1998, when they went 10-1, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Yankees, who stayed 8 1/2 games behind first-place Boston in the AL East, begin a nine-game road trip Tuesday night in Colorado.
Chien’s up and Mets are down
Wang, Bombers only team on the right track
BY MARK FEINSAND
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Monday, June 18th 2007, 4:00 AM
The Yankees and Mets finished the weekend Subway Series heading in the same direction in which they started it: on opposite tracks.
The series finale clearly illustrated the current fortunes of the two hometown teams, as the Yankees jumped out to an early lead and cruised to an 8-2 win last night before 55,060 fans at the Stadium.
"This is pretty special, especially after losing the first game to this ballclub," Joe Torre said. "The way they dominated us in the first game, for us to bounce back in spite of that makes me feel good about the temperature of this club."
Alex Rodriguez blasted another home run, while Chien-Ming Wang (7-4) won his fourth straight. Wang struck out a career-high 10 over 8-2/3 dominant innings.
Orlando Hernandez wasn’t nearly as good. El Duque (3-3) gave up six runs in 4-2/3 innings against his former team, putting his current one in a hole the feeble bats couldn’t overcome.
The victory gave the Yankees a 2-1 series win over the Mets, the teams finishing the season series 3-3 for the third straight year and the fifth time in the 11 years of interleague play. The Yankees have won five of the other six, with the Mets’ lone season series win coming in 2004.
"We know we caught them at a bad time," said Johnny Damon, who homered. "We know we are playing well right now. In this game, you want to catch good teams when they are not producing. It seems like we did that here, but we also played very well."
"I thought it was important to come back and play well," A-Rod said. "We came back the last two days and took care of business."
The Yankees have won five consecutive series, matching their total from their first 17 of the season. With 14 wins in their last 17 games, the Bombers have surged from eight games under .500 to three games over at 35-32, though they remained 8-1/2 games behind Boston in the AL East and 3-1/2 behind Detroit in the wild card race.
Unlike their red-hot crosstown rivals, the Mets have dropped five consecutive series, their longest such streak since they lost six straight in August-September 2005. Despite a 2-11 record in their last 13 games, the Mets stayed 1-1/2 games ahead of the Braves and two games up on the Phillies in the NL East.
"We feel good about ourselves, even though we’re not playing well," the Mets’ Carlos Beltran said. "I think things are not going our way right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to stay that way for the rest of the season. We know it’s going to change. It’s just a matter of time."
The Yankees, who scored two runs apiece in five consecutive innings Saturday, continued that trend last night against Hernandez. A-Rod started the Yankees in the first with a two-run homer into the Mets bullpen, his 27th.
"He can make you look silly on a lot of different pitches," Rodriguez said of El Duque. "I looked for a good pitch to hit and tried not to do too much with it."
The Yankees added two more in the second, as Miguel Cairo and Damon each singled in runs to make it a 4-0 game.
Bobby Abreu tripled to lead off the third and scored on A-Rod’s sac fly, giving Rodriguez 73 RBI. "El Duque is no secret; when he throws the ball real well, he’s hitting his spots," Willie Randolph said. "He got behind a lot tonight and wasn’t really hitting his curveball early in the count, which is a big key for him."
Wang, who woke up with a stiff neck yesterday, had little trouble making the runs stand up, facing the minimum nine batters through three hitless innings. The Mets got their first hit in the fourth, a leadoff single by Jose Reyes.
With Lo Duca at the plate, Jorge Posada called a pitchout on Wang’s 1-1 pitch, then made a perfect throw to nail Reyes at second base. It was the first time the Yankees had caught Reyes in six steal attempts over the weekend. Two innings later, Reyes grounded into a 3-6-3 double play after Wang walked Carlos Gomez with one out.
"It may never have happened before and it may never happen again that he gets thrown out stealing and hits into a double play in the same game," Torre said. "I don’t think that’s going to be an everyday occurrence for that kid."
It may as well have been 60-0 the way Wang was pitching. The Mets broke up his shutout in the seventh with some assistance from the pitcher, as David Wright reached first on a strikeout when the third strike - ruled a wild pitch - got away from Posada to extend the inning. Carlos Delgado followed with an RBI double, putting the Mets on the board.
"This is the first time for a lot of us facing him," Wright said. "He kept us off balance. When you’re looking for a 94 or 95 mph sinker and he throws a slider, it’s tough to react."
WANG TIME COMING
ETS PUT UP THEIR DUQUE VS. SURGING CHIEN-MING
June 17, 2007 -- With victories in his last three starts and five of his last six, Chien-Ming Wang is rolling. But pitching coach Ron Guidry theorized yesterday that we might not have seen the best of Wang (6-4, 3.49) just yet.
"His stuff could probably still get better," Guidry said.
After starting the season on the disabled list with a strained right hamstring, Wang struggled through a 1-3 start. Since a May 10 loss in Texas, though, he has allowed only 11 earned runs over six starts. Guidry said Wang was "a month late" in getting up to speed.
Wang starts the Subway Series finale tonight opposite the Mets’ Orlando Hernandez, and there’s no better stage for the 27-year-old sinkerballer. Despite the arrival of future Hall of Famer Roger Clemens, Guidry wants Wang to maintain the mentality of a staff ace that he developed in 2006. The pitching coach said it’s obvious that he comprehends his responsibilities by the way his teammates tease him and how he retaliates.
"Having [Clemens] here is outstanding, because he’s going to help everybody else," Guidry said. "But [Wang] knows what his role is on this team. Because [Clemens] is not going to be here for years and years. [Wang] is going to be here. So that’s what he has to understand. And he understands it a lot better."
Wang’s teammates used to mispronounce his last name, rhyming it with "gang" instead of "gong." But after a complete-game victory over Chicago on June 6, they’ve been adding a title when addressing him lately.
"Well, he pitched nine innings, we’ve got to call him Mr. Wang," Guidry said in mock seriousness.
Guidry said Wang’s resurgence is based on him having more faith in his pitches and getting out of innings quicker. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he’s currently fourth in the AL and eighth in the majors in pitches per inning among qualifying starters who have thrown 50 innings with 14.2. Hernandez, a notorious high-wire artist, is 57th in the majors at 15.7 pitches per inning.
"He’s throwing pitches over the plate and he’s not worried about whether they hit them or not," Guidry said. "When you’re pitching well and the team’s playing well, you have a lot more confidence of not making one mistake to get beat."
Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson said that’s exactly what El Duque’s predicament was on June 11 in Los Angeles, when he allowed five runs (four earned) over 5 2/3 innings. He had allowed only two earned runs in 32 innings entering that start.
"He was a pitch or two away from spinning up another [shutout]," Peterson said. "Typically, when you see four- or five-run outing from a pitcher as opposed to a one- or two-run outing or a no-run outing, it’s not 10 or 15 pitches.
"It’s one or two pitches. That’s why you always say, geez, wouldn’t it be nice to have one mulligan?"
michael.morrissey@ny post.com
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