Yanks fall short in finale vs. Jays
Winning streak halted as Wang runs into unexpected trouble
NEW YORK -- When he's at his best, Chien-Ming Wang operates quietly, from his
usually soft ground-ball style to his hushed tones in conversing with
teammates.
But it was too noisy for Wang to handle the seventh inning on Thursday, as
three Toronto runs spoiled six scoreless frames. It was also enough to hold
off the Yankees for a 3-2 victory, snapping New York's five-game winning
streak and averting a series sweep.
"Of course, I'm disappointed," Wang said through an interpreter. "If I didn't
give up the three runs, we would have won the game."
Toronto didn't manage a hit until Vernon Wells stroked a two-out double in
the fourth, and Wang seemed his efficient self in limiting the Jays to two
hits through six innings.
A group of fans in the upper deck at Yankee Stadium even took to posting
signs for each ground ball induced by Wang, much the way power pitchers are
greeted with congratulatory "Ks".
"The way he was pitching," catcher Wil Nieves said, "I thought he was going
to throw at least eight and just give it to Mariano [Rivera]."
That string came to an end in the seventh, as Matt Stairs opened with a
double up the gap in left-center field. Wells reached on an infield tapper up
the third-base line that never rolled foul, leaving Wang to scoop the
baseball off the grass and trudge back to work.
One out later, Wang was hit on the left ankle by a Frank Thomas comebacker,
which Andy Phillips fielded and raced to the bag while Stairs scored
Toronto's first run. After a brief inspection on the mound, which included
several warmup tosses, Wang then surrendered Aaron Hill's run-scoring triple
up the gap, tying the game.
Wang said the ball hit off his ankle wasn't a factor, but suggested he should
have mixed in his changeup a little bit more as the Jays got some better
swings off him.
Then again, Wang said his approach didn't really differ that much from the
first six innings: "Nothing changed," he said. "But in the seventh inning,
they just hit it really hard."
It turned out that, on a day when pockets of the sellout crowd of 53,857
celebrated Wang's every ground ball, the right-hander would be done in one.
Catcher Gregg Zaun ripped a ground single past the dive of Robinson Cano in
the decisive seventh, bringing home Hill and boosting the Jays to their first
lead of the afternoon.
"It's just one of those things," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "It's going
to happen. It hasn't happened very often to him, and we didn't give him a
whole lot to work with."
"I don't ever feel comfortable against that guy," Zaun said. "Normally, I
like facing sinker-slider guys, but he's just a notch above every
sinker-slider guy in the league. Right now, it looks like for a long time to
come, he's going to be one of the elite guys in all of baseball. It's never a
comfortable at-bat."
Wang -- the Yankees' victories leader with 10, including seven straight
before Thursday's loss -- would be lifted with one out in the eighth,
throwing 89 pitches in a 7 1/3-inning performance, allowing seven hits while
walking none and striking out three.
"Another great effort," said designated hitter Johnny Damon, who remained
hitless on the homestand after taking an 0-for-3. "He deserved to have won
this game. He had a rocky seventh, but he threw the ball well. It's
unfortunate we couldn't take advantage of that great pitching."
The Yankees put two runs on the board quickly against Jays starter Dustin
McGowan, as Damon and Derek Jeter walked to open the first. Bobby Abreu
followed by stroking a two-run double to the gap in left-center field, but
McGowan settled in to shut down the threat and limit the Yankees to just four
hits over seven innings.
"We were fortunate in the first inning to have two walks and turn it into two
runs, but we really couldn't do anything," Torre said. "We just didn't do a
whole lot offensively today."
Stifled by McGowan, the Yankees went in order against right-hander Casey
Janssen in the eighth inning and briefly sparked hope in the ninth, when Alex
Rodriguez greeted closer Jeremy Accardo with a shallow single to right field.
But Accardo induced the final three outs via a pop up, a grounder and a fly
ball, leaving the Yankees to feel little shame in getting a bit greedy.
The Yankees have enjoyed much success since the All-Star break, taking three
of four from both the Devil Rays and the Blue Jays in successive series, but
that didn't necessarily mean they left Yankee Stadium satisfied on Thursday.
As Rodriguez concluded, "When you're up 2-1 at home in the seventh, you feel
like it's a must win."
Jeter said that the Yankees had nothing to hang their heads about in the
game. New York has won four straight series and seven of nine games, and will
welcome the Devil Rays in for yet another four-game series opening Friday.
"We would have liked to have won, but sometimes the other team is going to
play better," Jeter said. "We couldn't get anything going. It was just one of
those days."
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