Results tagged ‘ Chien-Ming Wang ’

Yankees Draw First Blood

Chien-Ming Wang was utterly magnificent last night.  He didn’t just have no-hit-type stuff, he had perfect game stuff — and he no doubt would have accomplished that immortal feat had it not been for three small plays: a throwing error by A-Rod (who had made a spectacular stop on the play), a misplayed fly ball by Abreu, and a bunt single by Coco Crisp.  When Wang is on, he has the ability to dominate an opposing lineup more efficiently and effortlessly than any other pitcher in the league.  He can just lull a lineup to sleep.  Wang has carried a no-hit or perfect game bid late into a game a number of times during his short career (most recently last May against Seattle).  Sooner-or-later he is going to finish one.

I thought the official scorer made a bum call on A-Rod’s “error.”  Alex had to range to his right, toward the line, just to get to the ball, and while Pedroia isn’t a burner, it would have taken a perfect play to get him out.  That’s an infield single, not an error, in my eyes.  After all, had Pedroia bunted the ball into play and A-Rod made the same exact throw, no error would have been charged.
Abreu badly misplayed what should have been a fly out by Drew into a home run.  It was a routine fly that he could have camped under and caught simply by extending his arm high into the air since the fence in right center is so short.  Abreu never had a good sense of where he was in relation to the wall, though, and so he needlessly attempted a jumping catch.  His momentum took him into the wall and he rebounded away from the ball before he could make the play, costing Wang both the no-no and the shutout.
Abreu was often criticized in Philadelphia for being “afraid” of the wall.  While I believe that’s an unfair characterization, he’s not a particularly comfortable or adept fielder once he gets around the warning track.
Regardless of the “what-could-have-beens,” it was a phenomenal pitching performance by Wang and a good win for the Yankees that gets this series off on the best possible foot.

Looking Ahead to Next Weekend in Boston…

…the Yankees are slated to start Wang,
Mussina, and Hughes, in that order, against the Red
Sox.

Game 1 is in the Books…

Joe Girardi’s debut could not have been scripted any better.  Good pitching, timely hitting, and flawless defense.  That’s an invariable blueprint for success.

Melky and Wang were the obvious stars of the night.  The Melk-man flashed some serious leather — his diving catch in left center robbed Aaron Hill of at least a double and possibly a triple — and he looked to be generating much greater bat speed than we’ve been accustomed to from him over the last few years.  At times in his young career Melky has looked overmatched by power pitchers and has fallen into the bad habit of cheating to get around quicker on the fastball.  Not tonight, a night on which Halladay had his best stuff.  Melky was able to pull the ball with some authority and it was all because he was getting the bat head through the zone much quicker than in the past.  As for Wang, he labored early, making it look like this might be one of those nights where he gets dinged up for 11 or 12 hits in 5 innings, but he settled into a nice groove as the game wore on and breezed through the Toronto lineup.
Joba wasn’t as electric as usual, as his velocity was down about 4-5 mph on average and he struggled some with command of his breaking pitches, but he still got the job done and managed to fan two Blue Jay hitters in the process without surrendering a hit.  Mo looked like he was in mid-season form.
So the Yankees got the better of nemesis Halladay tonight in a very crisply played opener and now have the pleasure of facing A.J Burnett tomorrow evening.  Burnett can utterly baffle the Yankee lineup (in 2 starts against the Yanks last year he went 1-0 with a 0.60 ERA, a .160 BAA, and 13 SO in 15 IP), making it next-to-imperative that Mussina provide another well-pitched game for the Bombers.
Hopefully the weather tomorrow night will be just as nice as it was tonight, and the outcome the same: a Yankee victory.
| back to blog home |
Theme: MLB “retro” | Get a free blog at WordPress.com
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.