[新聞] Relying on Sinker, Wang Gets 1st Win Since May

看板CMWang (王建民 - 大樹哥)作者harry630 (......)時間18年前 (2008/06/11 14:26)推噓4(4推 0噓 0→)

留言4則, 3人參與討論串1/1

June 11, 2008 Yankees 3, Athletics 1 Relying on Sinker, Wang Gets 1st Win Since May By TYLER KEPNER OAKLAND, Calif. — Kurt Suzuki threw back his head as he crossed first base in the seventh inning Tuesday. He stopped and put his hands on his knees. Suzuki was out, and so was Carlos Gonzalez, and so, almost, were the Oakland Athletics. Suzuki had just bounced into the fourth double play in five innings against the Yankees’ Chien-Ming Wang, who won for the first time in seven starts as the Yankees edged the A’s, 3-1, at the Coliseum. Working for the fourth day in a row, Mariano Rivera earned his 17th save. Wang (7-2) allowed a leadoff base runner in each of his first seven innings, but he is the consummate ground ball pitcher, and he steered away from trouble with his trusty sinker. Wang worked seven and a third innings, allowing a run, seven hits and two walks. Manager Joe Girardi took Wang out after Jack Hannahan drove his 83rd pitch to the left field warning track for the first out of the eighth. He summoned Jose Veras, the latest to take a turn as the eighth-inning replacement for Joba Chamberlain. Veras walked two of his first three hitters, bringing up Mark Ellis, who was 3 for 3 with two doubles. But with Veras throwing 98 miles an hour, Ellis grounded to second to end the threat. Rivera had been up already, standing in the bullpen with his warm-up coat on, jangling his arms to get loose. After Veras escaped the jam, Rivera took the mound in the right field bullpen, not far from the landing spot of a homer in the ninth by Melky Cabrera. Armed with a two-run lead, Rivera would not be vulnerable to a crucial bases-empty homer, like the two he allowed against Kansas City in the Yankees ’ last series. The A’s looked helpless against Rivera, swinging awkwardly. Daric Barton took a wild swing at an up-and-away fastball and struck out. Travis Buck broke his bat on a pop out to second. Gonzalez followed with a soft single to center, giving Suzuki another chance. Rivera had thrown only 30 pitches across his previous three games, but he needed 20 on Tuesday, finally getting Suzuki to fly out to right and end the game. Wang’s previous four starts represented probably the roughest regular-season stretch of his career. After starting the season 6-1 with a 2.90 earned run average, he slumped to 0-1, 8.75 in those games. Wang sustained a mild calf injury in the first start of that stretch, but the Yankees believe his problems are not physical. Wang has simply been dropping his arm angle, the theory goes, causing his sinker to sweep across the strike zone, not sharply downward. His first pitch hit Jack Hannahan’s foot, and the next three A’s hitters elevated the ball. But all of the hits went for fly outs, and Wang continued to survive shaky starts. Oakland’s leadoff man reached base in each of the first five innings, but the A’s scored just once. It happened in the fourth, when Mark Ellis doubled in Jack Cust, who had led off with a single off Wilson Betemit’s glove at first base. That inning was sandwiched around two innings when Wang used double plays to escape jams. In the sixth, Wang got another double play to erase a leadoff base runner. Bobby Crosby singled but was quickly forced out when Cust bounced to second to start the third double play in four innings. Wang had a 2-1 lead then, but the Yankees could have gotten more off the left-hander Dana Eveland. He walked six in six innings, but the Yankees scored only in the first inning, on singles by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi. It was an especially rough night for Betemit, starting at first base in a move that effectively gave Hideki Matsui a day off. The Yankees seem desperate for Betemit to succeed — Girardi and General Manager Brian Cashman are strong supporters — but he went 0 for 4 and stranded five runners. Betemit came up in the sixth and fouled out, after Giambi had taken second base on a fly out to right, and Robinson Canó followed with a fly out to left to end the inning. Canó held his helmet in the air, as if he wanted to spin it across the infield dirt. But his better judgment prevailed, and the A’s were more frustrated, anyway. Ellis led off the seventh with a single, and a one-out walk and single loaded the bases for Suzuki. The pitching coach Dave Eiland came to the mound, and Wang produced the perfect result: the ground ball to Rodriguez, who started the fourth double play of the game. INSIDE PITCH The Yankees released infielder Morgan Ensberg, who was designated for assignment on June 2, and first baseman Ben Broussard, who played briefly for their Class AAA team. 新聞來源:http://0rz.tw/0f4dk -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 220.140.34.120