Chien-Ming Wang took the mound today in beautiful California, needing a win to start the clubs ascend toward the leaders in the American League East. The team gave him a 2 Run lead by the time he took the mound to start the game, and that was all he would need.
Wang went 7.1 innings, scattering 7 Hits, allowing only 1 Run in the 7th inning off the bat of Ellis. Other than that, it was your typical dominating performance from our ace. There really wasn’t any threats produced by the A’s offense, until the shaky 7th inning, but then the bullpen entered and ended the game without allowing any more runs. Rivera entered in the 9th inning, and looked unphased pitching his typical inning of shutout ball, picking up his 17th Save of the season.
The scoring came early, in the 1st inning, with Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi hitting runners across homeplate, and they never looked back. The combination of excellent pitching, and that early offensive blast was good enough for the victory here in Oakland.
This brings the Yankees to within 6 games of Boston (losing today to Baltimore), along with a continuing tie with Toronto and Baltimore. The East still looks to be wide open, and well within reach, given a nice little winning streak. You can’t control what the other teams do, but you can maximize your chances by continuing to win, and put pressure on the leaders in the division.
