Once again Chien-Ming Wang took the mound on the road for the Yankees and dominated the opponent, leaving the game after pitching 5 innings of shut-out baseball. The difference in this start was that he left due to injury. As he was running the bases in this interleague game with the National League’s Houston Astros, he hurt his right foot, and had to be helped off the field, not returning to pitch in the 6th inning. Instead he was replaced by Ohlendorf, and faces the prospect of being out for a long time, wearing a cast, and walking boot, possibly, through early September. Yikes!
Even though he left in the bottom of the 5th inning, he still pitched the Major League minimum to get the decision (another Win), and took his road record to 5-0. He dropped his ERA to 4.07, and looked as dominant as he has looked all season. He spread 6 Hits over that time, and did not allow a Run, a Walk, or any offensive threat by the Astros all day. Wang will be missed greatly.
The offense, on the other hand, does not have any bad news following these facts. 13 baserunners crossed home plate for the club today, matching their second highest point total of the year, behind only to the 15 Runs they posted on that horrible team from Boston (who wear red sox), at Yankee Stadium, on April 16th.
So many good things happened today for this team offensively that it would take pages of details to sort through them all. However, looking through the lineup, it is nice to see that 7 RBI’s came from the bottom of the list (Posada 3, Cano 3, and Cabrera 1), and the rest picked up from the meat of the order (Jeter 2, Matsui 1, Rodriguez 3).
This was an impressive win, although shadowed by the lose of their ace, and sends the Yankees speeding away from that dreaded .500 record that has been hanging around for months now, at 37-33, and they are starting to make a move in the East. They are sitting alone in third place, 6 games out, and climbing the ranks, leaving Baltimore and Toronto behind.
The team heads home on their day off Monday, and hosts the Padres at the House that Ruth Built for a 3-game series. They look to make this their third straight series win, and keep up their winning ways. Any information on the condition of Chien-Ming Wang will be passed along.
