Yankees Get Some Help in Stopping a Streak

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Yankees have won the last 11 times that Chien-Ming Wang has started after a loss.

By TYLER KEPNER

Published: May 3, 2008

The Yankees faced one of the best pitchers in baseball Friday night, and they really had no answer for him. They used their 28th different lineup, the most in the majors this season, and their final 14 hitters made outs against Érik Bédard of the Seattle Mariners.

But Bédard’s defense betrayed him, with four early errors, and the Mariners could not afford such mistakes. Their hitters were up against Chien-Ming Wang, who always seems to win, especially when trying to stop a Yankees losing streak.

“As soon as we put some runs up,” the Yankees’ Joba Chamberlain said, “you know as a guy in the bullpen that you’d better be ready, because it’s going to be a short night for those guys.”

And so it was. Wang allowed one run and three hits over six innings, guiding the Yankees past Seattle, 5-1, at wind-swept Yankee Stadium. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the 11th time in a row that the Yankees had won with Wang pitching after a loss.

Wang had no victories at this point last season — he was recovering from a hamstring injury — yet he finished 19-7. This season he is 6-0, and over his last 30 starts he is a staggering 22-3.

Wang is so automatic that he sometimes seems to accentuate the unpredictability of the rest of the staff. At least, that is how the co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner framed it in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday.

“We just can’t win one out of five games, every time Wang pitches,” Steinbrenner said. “It’s not going to work. It’s not a good win percentage. Starting pitching is where it’s at, especially in the postseason. At this point, we’ll see if we even make the postseason.”

The Yankees, who had dropped three in a row before Friday, can thank a $1.9 million investment in 2000 if their season lasts into October. That was when they outbid Seattle by $900,000 to sign Wang as an amateur from Taiwan.

As a major leaguer, Wang has tormented the Mariners, winning all seven starts against them and holding them to a .194 average. Facing them at Yankee Stadium last May, he carried a perfect game into the eighth inning.

Wang had no explanation for his success against the Mariners, but he said the last month had been his best in the majors. He is mixing in more sliders and changeups, working both sides of the plate. But his sinker remains his signature.

“He throws 95 right in the middle of the zone, and all of a sudden it’s in the bottom of the zone,” Seattle catcher Jamie Burke said. “You can see why he’s done such a good job.”

Bédard set the Baltimore Orioles’ single-season record for strikeouts last year, with 221, despite not pitching in September. Trusting his fielders was risky on Friday.

Shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt mishandled Derek Jeter’s grounder with one out in the first, and with two outs, Hideki Matsui drove in a run with a broken-bat single to left.

Another unearned run came across in the second. Morgan Ensberg led off with a grounder to third baseman Adrián Beltre, a Gold Glove winner who bobbled the ball. Ensberg was safe on that error, and safe at second on another when second baseman José López dropped the ball on a stolen-base attempt.

In the span of six batters, three Mariners infielders had made errors. A one-out single by Alberto González followed, and Melky Cabrera laced a double to the left-field corner, bringing in two runs (one earned) to make it 3-0.

The Yankees sent 19 more hitters to the plate against Bédard, and none got a hit. But their early lead was enough to stand up, and Wang was strong enough to continue after being bothered by cramping in his right palm in the fifth inning.

“I think it’s gone,” Wang said. He was referring to the cramp, but he could have been talking about the Yankees’ losing streak. Wang had stopped it, again, because that is what he does.

INSIDE PITCH

The Yankees announced that they had sold 4 million tickets, making them the first team to do that in four successive seasons. ... The Yankees had a nine-man bullpen Friday with the promotion of reliever José Veras, who had a 1.38 earned run average at Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The team still needs to clear a roster space for Darrell Rasner, who will start Sunday. ... The longest active hitless streak among major league position players belongs to the Yankees’ José Molina, who is 0 for 22. But Molina was encouraged by a deep out to center that died in the wind but drove in a run in the eighth. “It felt good to take a good swing,” he said. ... Derek Jeter passed Joe DiMaggio for fourth place on the Yankees’ career list in runs scored, with 1,391. The names ahead of him: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Mickey Mantle.

News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/03/sports/baseball/03yankees.html?_r=1&ref=baseball&oref=slogin