07/09: Wang's Gem Gives Yankees 4th Straight Victory
Posted by: Seamus
The Yankees kept pace with the Red Sox and moved to within 5 of the White Sox for the wild card last night thanks to another solid performance by Chien-Ming Wang as the Yankees defeated the Devil Rays 5-1. Wang pitched 8 and 1/3, allowing only one run on 6 hits. The victory is the Yankees' 4th in a row and Johnny Gomes' sac fly in the 9th ended the Yankees' streak of 18 straight innings without allowing a run.
The game was scoreless until the 6th inning when Jorge Posada knocked Johnny Damon, who entered as a pinch runner for Jason Giambi, in with a single. Damon looked like he was feeling just fine in his first game back since Wednesday, as he drove in two runs in his first at bat with a triple in the 7th inning. Melky Cabrera and Derek Jeter capped off the offense with RBI singles in the 8th. Kyle Farnsworth recorded the last two outs, allowing the sac fly which gave the Rays their only run of the game (charged to Wang).
A lot of people are calling Mike Mussina an All-Star snub this year, but Wang also deserves credit for what he's done so far. I'm not saying that he should be there because there are more deserving guys such as Francisco Liriano of the Twins, but Wang's numbers actually compare pretty evenly if not slightly favorably to Mark Buehrle's. Can't blame Ozzie Guillen for taking his own guy though. Getting to the World Series earns you that privilege. Joe Torre's managed 6 All-Star games since he's been with the Yankees, so we all know how that works.
Kris Wilson will be making his first start as a Yankee today at 1:15 ET and will be facing Casey Fossum as the Yanks go for the sweep before getting four days off for the All-Star break. Wilson pitched two scoreless innings in Wednesday's victory over Cleveland.
EDIT: I realize for whatever reason I linked to the wrong guys' stats. Sorry about that, just fixed it.
The game was scoreless until the 6th inning when Jorge Posada knocked Johnny Damon, who entered as a pinch runner for Jason Giambi, in with a single. Damon looked like he was feeling just fine in his first game back since Wednesday, as he drove in two runs in his first at bat with a triple in the 7th inning. Melky Cabrera and Derek Jeter capped off the offense with RBI singles in the 8th. Kyle Farnsworth recorded the last two outs, allowing the sac fly which gave the Rays their only run of the game (charged to Wang).
A lot of people are calling Mike Mussina an All-Star snub this year, but Wang also deserves credit for what he's done so far. I'm not saying that he should be there because there are more deserving guys such as Francisco Liriano of the Twins, but Wang's numbers actually compare pretty evenly if not slightly favorably to Mark Buehrle's. Can't blame Ozzie Guillen for taking his own guy though. Getting to the World Series earns you that privilege. Joe Torre's managed 6 All-Star games since he's been with the Yankees, so we all know how that works.
Kris Wilson will be making his first start as a Yankee today at 1:15 ET and will be facing Casey Fossum as the Yanks go for the sweep before getting four days off for the All-Star break. Wilson pitched two scoreless innings in Wednesday's victory over Cleveland.
EDIT: I realize for whatever reason I linked to the wrong guys' stats. Sorry about that, just fixed it.
