Alex Rodriguez pats Chien-Ming Wang as Wang departs the game in the ninth inning. The Yankees pitcher set a new career high with 10 strikeouts while allowed two earned runs in 8 2/3 innings on Sunday.
(Newsday / Paul J. Bereswill)June 17, 2007
Wang is too much for Mets
Yankees pitcher dominates and A-Rod (27th), Damon, Posada smash homers
BY DAVID LENNON
david.lennon@newsday.com
June 18, 2007
What the Yankees did to the Mets in the finale of this season’s Subway Series was almost unfair. There was no mystery to Roger Clemens, a familiar villain, and no reason to fear rookie Tyler Clippard.
But unveiling Chien-Ming Wang for the closing act of this crosstown rivalry was downright mean-spirited. The Mets had never faced Wang before last night and probably left the Bronx hoping they never do again.
If these teams continue on their current trajectories, it definitely won’t happen in the World Series. Maybe it said more about the sorry state of the Mets that Wang, a sinkerball specialist accustomed to contact, somehow whiffed a career-best 10 before he was removed with two outs in the ninth inning.
The Yankees had no such problems. Alex Rodriguez, Johnny Damon and Jorge Posada homered in an 8-2 demolition of the Mets that felt much worse for the visitors than it looked on the scoreboard.
After getting shut out in Friday’s opener, the Yankees rebounded to take the next two and draw even with the Mets for the season. Overall, they have won 11 of 12 but remained 8½ games behind the Red Sox.
"For us to bounce back in spite of that," Yankees manager Joe Torre said, "makes me feel good about the temperature of this club."
By any measure, the Yankees are red-hot. Rodriguez belted a two-run shot off Orlando Hernandez for his 27th home run and added a sacrifice fly to give him 73 RBIs through 67 games. Damon had two RBIs as the Yankees pounded Hernandez (3-3) for seven hits and six runs in 4 2/3 innings. Posada hammered a two-run homer off Aaron Heilman in the eighth.
"We knew we caught them at a bad time," Damon said.
He was talking about the Mets, who could not be much worse. They suffered their 11th defeat in 12 games, but with the Braves and Phillies having lost earlier, the Mets stayed 1½ games ahead of Atlanta.
The Mets had hoped this weekend would be a wake-up call. Instead, it was more like a standing 8-count. Manager Willie Randolph put Paul Lo Duca back in the No. 2 spot to try to spark the lineup, but he was hit by a pitch in the first inning and left in the fourth with a bruised left elbow. Carlos Beltran, complaining again of a sore left quadriceps muscle before the game, went 1-for-4 with an RBI single in the ninth.
"We’re not quitting," said Carlos Delgado, who had an RBI double in the seventh. "We’re trying hard to make things work."
Wang (7-4) didn’t allow a hit until Jose Reyes’ leadoff single in the fourth. He improved to 6-1 with a 2.26 ERA in his last seven starts, and when Torre came out to retrieve Wang in the ninth, the crowd booed loudly until Wang tipped his cap - instantly turning them to cheers.
"He’s an incredible talent," Rodriguez said. "You never expect eight innings, no matter who you are."
The Yankees knew what they were up against in El Duque, whose variety of speeds and arm angles were ineffective. Hernandez led the majors with a 1.58 ERA in night games, but he was 0-3 with a 4.26 ERA lifetime against his former team. And it definitely was not his night in this latest Bronx homecoming.
A-Rod smacked his two-run homer with two outs in the first. In the second, Miguel Cairo ripped an RBI double, and Damon followed with a single to put the Yankees ahead 4-0. With Wang, it already felt like a rout.
"They’re playing great," David Wright said. "You’ve got to tip your cap to them. When they get hot, they’re real tough to beat. We’re going to lose when we don’t hit and give up runs. It’s a simple game."
While the Mets kept making stupid mistakes - overthrowing cutoff men and forgetting the number of outs - the Yankees kept piling on. In the third inning, Bobby Abreu tripled and scored on Rodriguez’s sacrifice fly. Damon greeted Hernandez in the fifth with a home run into the rightfield seats, and El Duque soon displayed some of his team’s frustration. After he caught Derek Jeter looking at a third strike, he drilled Abreu on the right shoulder with a fastball.
Another inch or two higher, and the pitch might have nailed Abreu in the head. Abreu looked annoyed as he walked slowly toward first base, but that bruise was nothing compared with the mental anguish inflicted on the Mets over the weekend. The Yankees couldn’t be happier.
"Losing’s not fun," Damon said. "But we have too much to worry about without worrying about what they’re going through right now."
SUBWAY EXTRA
UNSUNG HERO
Miguel Cairo (right). New day, same effort from the reserve, who turned in a top-notch performance from the bottom of the order. A day after going 2-for-5 with two RBIs and a stolen base, the Yankees’ erstwhile utility man smacked an RBI double in the second inning last night and started a nifty 3-6-3 double play to end the sixth. Who needs a first baseman?
METS QUOTE
’I don’t know what Carlos is saying to you guys ... I wish I was on your shoulder when you guys asked him.’ - Willie Randolph on Beltran’s comments
YANKEES QUOTE
’[Teams] have to beat us now. We’re not going to give it to them.’- Mariano Rivera
Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.
Wang dominates despite stiff neck
He shrugs off soreness to strike out 10, a career high
BY JIM BAUMBACH
jim.baumbach@newsday.com
June 18, 2007
Chien-Ming Wang set a career high with 10 strikeouts last night in the Yankees’ 8-2 victory over the Mets, and if that wasn’t impressive enough, then consider this: He pitched with a stiff neck and upper back.
Wang doesn’t know how he aggravated his neck, only that when he woke up yesterday, he felt an abnormal amount of stiffness. He reported to Yankee Stadium early for treatment, which included an assortment of heat and ultrasound.
And never did he consider not pitching.
"If I can pitch," Wang said, "I’ll pitch."
That’s the type of attitude that is expected of an ace, which is clearly the role that Wang plays for the Yankees’ pitching staff. But even though he won 19 games last season, there’s always been a sentiment around the league that he couldn’t sustain his success, not while striking out an average of two hitters per start.
Last night, Wang showed for the first time that he can be a strikeout pitcher during an otherwise typically strong outing. He allowed two runs, six hits and one walk in 8 2/3 innings, though most of the damage occurred well after the Yankees bats had built a healthy advantage.
With what seems an effortless delivery and easygoing release, Wang doesn’t have the look of a flame-throwing ace. But last night, the numbers said otherwise; eight of his 10 strikeout victims went down swinging.
"That was certainly out of character for him," Joe Torre said. The Yankees manager lauded Wang before the game for his willingness to pitch to contact, calling him a good role model for the kids watching because "he lets them hit the ball." Of course a few hours later, Wang took the mound and did the opposite.
Wang probably won’t ever be a strikeout pitcher, but a closer look at his statistics shows a noticeable increase in strikeouts. His 2007 season total after last night’s game is 41, which is more than half of his 2006 total of 76. But this year, he’s made only 11 starts. Last year, he made 33. That puts him on pace to enter triple digits in strikeouts.
When Wang took the mound for the eighth inning, it was almost as if he went about his pitching specifically intending to dispel the theory that he can’t be a strikeout pitcher. He struck out the side, getting Jose Reyes to chase a full-count sinker to end the inning.
"That last sinker he threw just really dove, a lot," Torre said. "Reyes had a good look at it and he swung at it, but the ball wasn’t there anymore when it got to him."
Alex Rodriguez added: "I looked up and thought it was a different game. I couldn’t believe it."
Torre felt the biggest difference for Wang last night was the effectiveness of his slider and his changeup. Wang said he threw both pitches more than ever before. He used to throw his heavy sinker on almost every pitch, but the emergence of quality secondary pitches has helped him carry over his success from his breakthrough 2006 season.
Wang is 6-1 with a 2.26 ERA in his last seven starts, and he’s 7-4 with a 3.33 ERA overall after missing the first month of the season rehabbing a strained right hamstring.
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