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Yankees 5, Mariners 1
Yankees Get Some Help in Stopping a Streak
By TYLER KEPNER
Published: May 3, 2008
The Yankees faced one of the majors’ best pitchers Friday night, and they
really had no answer for him. They used their 28th lineup of the season, the
most in the major leagues, yet their final 14 hitters made outs against Érik
Bédard of the Seattle Mariners.
But Bédard’s defense betrayed him, with four early errors, and the Mariners
could not afford such mistakes. Their hitters were up against Chien-Ming
Wang, who always seems to win, especially when trying to stop a Yankees
losing streak.
Wang allowed one run and three hits over six innings, guiding the Yankees
past Seattle, 5-1, at wind-swept Yankee Stadium. The Yankees had lost three
in a row, but it was only natural for them to win Friday. According to the
Elias Sports Bureau, the Yankees have won the last 11 times Wang has started
after a loss.
Wang had no victories at this point last season — he was recovering from a
hamstring injury — and he finished 19-7. This season he is 6-0, and over his
last 30 starts he is 22-3.
Wang was nearly signed by the Mariners as an amateur in 2000. Impressed by
his fastball, they offered a $1 million bonus before the Yankees nearly
doubled that amount. As a major leaguer, Wang has tormented Seattle.
Before Friday, Wang had won all six of his starts against the Mariners,
holding their hitters to a .201 average. Facing them at Yankee Stadium last
May, he carried a perfect game into the eighth inning.
In Bédard, though, Wang was facing an opponent with a similar kind of
success. In his last five starts against the Yankees, all for the Baltimore
Orioles, he was 3-0 with a 1.64 earned run average.
A hard thrower with a sweeping breaking ball, Bédard set the Orioles’
single-season record for strikeouts last year, with 221, despite not
pitching in September. Trusting his fielders to handle things proved to be
risky Friday.
The Mariners made four errors before the second out of the third inning.
Shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt mishandled Derek Jeter’s grounder with one out
in the first. Bobby Abreu flipped a single to left, and with two outs, Hideki
Matsui dropped a broken-bat single to left to score Jeter.
Another unearned run came across in the second. Morgan Ensberg led off with a
grounder to third baseman Adrián Beltre, a Gold Glove winner last season.
Beltre bobbled the ball and could not recover. Ensberg was safe on that
error, and safe at second on another error when second baseman José López
dropped the ball on a stolen-base attempt.
In the span of six batters, three Mariners infielders had made errors. A
one-out single by Alberto González followed, and Melky Cabrera laced a
double to the left-field corner, bringing in two runs (one earned) to make it
3-0.
The Yankees sent 19 more hitters to the plate against Bédard, and none got a
hit. But their early lead was enough to stand up.
Wang was not sharp early in the game. Three of the first four outs were fly
balls. He then walked Jeff Clement, the rookie designated hitter. José
Molina went to the mound to meet Wang, who responded by striking out the
next two hitters.
He was on his way after that, and by the end of his six innings, Wang had
allowed only one runner past second — the indomitable Ichiro Suzuki, who in
the sixth singled, stole two bases and scored on a groundout.
The only blip for Wang was a visit from Manager Joe Girardi, a trainer and
the pitching coach, Dave Eiland, with one out in the fifth inning. Wang
sometimes gets blisters from throwing his sinker, which requires him to push
off the seams of the ball with his index and middle fingers.
Whatever the problem, Wang stayed in for five more outs and left after 90
pitches, turning the game over to Kyle Farnsworth, who retired the side in
the seventh. A trainer also visited Farnsworth at the mound, and it was
really no surprise.
No team has used the disabled list more often this season than the Yankees,
who are learning they cannot be too careful.
INSIDE PITCH
The Yankees announced that they had sold four million tickets, making them
the first team to do that in four successive seasons. ... The Yankees had a
nine-man bullpen Friday with the promotion of reliever José Veras, who had a
1.38 earned run average at Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The team still
needs to clear a roster space for Darrell Rasner, who will start on Sunday.
... Catcher José Molina went 0 for 3, extending his hitless streak to 22
at-bats. It is the longest active hitless streak in the majors among
nonpitchers.
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