[外電] Wang stops the bleeding

[veronica4 (Veronica)]

http://www.northjersey.com/sports/yankees/Wang_bails_out_Yanks.html

BY ADITI KINKHABWALA

NEW YORK – Joba Chamberlain debuted the shirt with the "Wang" and the "40"
before the other Yankees knew they had ones in their wardrobe, too.

Chamberlain then spun a long yarn about the "special" bond he shares with
Chien-Ming Wang, and Friday, when the starter the 22-year old Nebraskan calls
his favorite player pitched, Chamberlain hung on – and memorized — nearly
every pitch.

"There's just something when Chien-Ming goes out ... " he said, trailing off
because, well, there is just something about Chien-Ming Wang. On Friday, in a
frigidly cold, wind-whipped Yankee Stadium, that something pushed the Yankees
to a 5-1 win over the Mariners – and stemmed a three-loss, bad-news streak.

"He's just got good stuff," manager Joe Girardi said, and good stuff it was, as
Wang gave up just one run and three hits in six innings. He struck out five,
walked just two and made the Mariners, coming off an 11-inning Thursday loss in
Cleveland, look all the more tired.

Chamberlain may be the Yankee to get the thunderous applause – and in the
eighth, before what would become his 15th shutout inning in the Bronx, that's
indeed what he got – and Chamberlain may be the "solution" owner Hank
Steinbrenner shrewdly alluded to Friday in a slap at the Yankees' current
rotation, but it's Wang who's been the brightest spot of this thus-far trying
season.

The 28-year old right-hander is now 6-0, matching Arizona's Brandon Webb for
baseball's best start. He's 22 times over the last three years followed a
Yankee loss with a win, and with a newly devastating slider and an occasionally
flummoxing change-up, he's put together, he said, the best month of his career.

"I didn't feel this good in the spring," the Taiwanese pitcher said afterward
in his quiet way. "My control keeps getting better."

He had that control with all four of his pitches Friday. His sinker was sinking,
his slider was breaking and his fastball and change-up worked their way into
what was a confounding repertoire. Wang was 6-0 in six starts against Seattle
coming in, and it was clear the Mariners had budged little in their effort to
figure him out.

In the fourth, when Raul Ibanez led off with a double, Wang coolly goaded
Beltre into a grounder, struck out Jeff Clement on a slider, and then had
Richie Sexson harmlessly ground a fastball to short. Wang gave the Yankees a
minor scare in the fifth, when the heel of his hand temporarily cramped, and in
the sixth, the Mariners did finally tag him with a run, with Ichiro Suzuki
slapping a single up the middle, wrapping two stolen bases around a Jose Lopez
strikeout and then coming home on Ibanez's groundout.

The Yankees, however, had taken advantage of three Seattle errors and staked
Wang to a 3-0 lead after two. Seattle's Erik Bedard was unhittable after that,
and retired the final 14 batters he faced, but with Wang on the mound — and
Kyle Farnsworth, Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera after him — the Yankees didn't
need the two insurance runs they got in the eighth.

Still, for as much as the night played like a panacea here in the Bronx,
Steinbrenner told an Associated Press reporter in Tampa it wasn't time to be
encouraged.

"We just can't win one out of five games, every time Wang pitches. It's not
going to work. It's not a good win percentage," he said. Steinbrenner, who's
made no secret he'd like Chamberlain starting, then said, "Starting pitching is
where it's at, especially in the postseason. At this point, we'll see if we
even make the postseason."

On May 3, there's still time to see that. Then again, maybe Steinbrenner just
needs a T-shirt.

"It's a special shirt," Chamberlain said. "Really."

--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) 
◆ From: 220.231.156.177
推 cyp001:小王是OK繃嗎?
推 deathnai:應該說是止敗...最後一句也真貼心XD
推 akainorei:Speical Shirt, special bond, 真的快成斷背山XD
推 deathnai:看了小張抱小王那張，應該毫無疑問了吧XD
推 RAINYBLUE:ok繃也比不上血小板啊...XD
推 bunny3507:我竟然把樓上看成看成血王板...<囧>