推 tupacshkur:Whattttttt up Wang!!!!! 05/06 21:43
推 akainorei:讓我想到以前的scary movie, wasssssssssuuuuup!!!!! 05/06 21:50
Wang flirts with baseball perfection
Sunday, May 06, 2007
BY ED PRICE
Star-Ledger Staff
NEW YORK --
Derek Jeter likes to greet Yankees teammate Chien-Ming Wang with a cry of,
"What up Wang?" -- purposely mispronouncing the pitcher's last name to
rhyme with "clang" instead of "song."
What was up yesterday was a lot of nothing.
As in, almost all zeros for the Seattle Mariners.
Wang came within five outs of a perfect game, retiring 22 straight before
settling for eight two-hit innings in the Yankees' 8-1 victory at Yankee
Stadium.
As he left the Stadium, the soft-spoken Wang was told there have only
been 17 perfect games in major-league history.
"Almost," he said, with the barest hint of regret. "Almost."
While Wang was unable to etch his name along side Don Larsen, David Wells
and David Cone in the record book -- Ben Broussard's homer prevented
that -- he did provide the Yankees with the ace performance they have so
sorely needed.
"This team depends on him a lot," pitching coach Ron Guidry said.
"We're not going anywhere without Wang," third baseman Alex Rodriguez
said.
Before yesterday, the Yankees' rotation had a 5.73 ERA and averaged
fewer than five innings a game. His power sinker in top form, Wang
became the first Yankees starter this year to pitch into the eighth
inning and the first in 17 games to last more than 6 1/3 innings.
Wang's outing was timely because the Yankees on Friday were battered for
15 runs and 20 hits, while rookie Darrell Rasner is scheduled to start
today, followed by Matt DeSalvo tomorrow in his big-league debut.
"I just thought I needed to go throw a lot of innings and let the
bullpen relax," Wang said.
This is the job of the staff ace. Asked is he sees himself in that role,
Wang gave an emphatic, "No," taken aback as if he couldn't even believe
it was a legitimate question.
But Guidry believes Wang knows his responsibility on the Yankees' staff.
"I think he understands how important he is here and what he means to
this ballclub," Guidry said.
"When you have that guy like that, it takes a lot of pressure from a
lot of other guys. But that's why he's so important to the club. ...
He's not a power pitcher, but he's still the ace."
Said Jeter: "He's capable of shutting down offensive teams, because
he throws such a heavy ball. ... You love to see him out there every
five days because for the most part he throws a lot of strikes and
he eats up a lot of innings."
It was just the third start of the season for Wang. He was in line
to be the Yankees' Opening Day starter -- an honor he earned last year
by winning 19 games and finishing second in Cy Young Award
voting -- before he suffered a strained hamstring late in spring
training.
Wang came off the disabled list April 24, and in his first two
starts went 0-2 with a 5.84 ERA. Last Sunday against Boston, Wang
suffered a horizontal crack on the right middle fingernail, leaving
some question that he might have to miss a start. But he came through
a side session Wednesday with no problems.
"For a guy we weren't sure if he was going to make his next start,
he did a great job," Torre said. "That's a big hole for us" if Wang
can't go.
Wang struck out four and got 13 groundball outs,
including a double play to end the eighth. His pitch count
by inning: 9, 12, 10, 16, 12, 18, 14, 12.
"We want consistency out of the staff," catcher Jorge Posada said,
"and that's as consistent as you can get."
A celebrity in Taiwan, Wang last week was named to Time magazine's
"Time 100" -- "the 100 men and women whose power, talent or moral
example is transforming the world."
But Wang is humble, quiet (in English and Chinese) and, as Torre
said -- referring to Wang's pitching style, but also his placid
persona -- "not complicated."
Wang claimed he didn't even know he had a no-hitter going until after
the eighth inning, when Posada told him in the dugout.
It may be true.
"Pressure doesn't seem to bother him," Torre said. "Whether he knew
how important this game was ... He gave us what he has. He's about
as even-tempered a starting pitcher as I've ever seen.
"I was curious just to see what kind of emotion (he'd display) if
he did pitch the a no-hitter. He may have jogged off the mound or
something instead of walked."
Wang got defensive help from Rodriguez, who made a backhand snag of
a sharp one-hopper and charged a slow bouncer, and left fielder
Hideki Matsui, who ran down Ichiro Suzuki's drive to deep
left-center leading off the seventh.
"I kind of had a good feeling," first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz
said. "I thought he was going to get it.
"When he's on, he throws a shot put up there, and nothing looks like
it's good to hit -- just because it's so heavy. All you do is beat it
in the ground."
And the movement on Wang's sinker is late.
"That's the trick," Torre said. "The ball doesn't move until right
at the end, after you've already committed yourself."
Said Seattle's Willie Bloomquist: "That's basically his only pitch,
and he kind of shut us down with it."
Jeremy Cothran and Lisa Kennelly contributed to this report.
Ed Price may be reached at eprice@starledger.com
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