Rookie right-hander Wang Chien-ming (
Wang became a valuable member of the Yankees' injury-plagued rotation during the first half of the season. The Taiwanese pitcher went 6-3 with a 3.89 ERA in 13 games, including 12 starts, then landed on the disabled list himself in July with a strain and inflammation in his shoulder.
"He's got a great deal of confidence," manager Joe Torre said.
Wang said he is throwing without pain and with his normal velocity. He added that he won't need surgery after the season.
"It feels better, feels good," Wang said.
Devil Rays 4, YANKEES 3
Second baseman Robinson Cano's error in the ninth inning allowed the go-ahead run to score, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays won the season series against the Yankees for the first time, beating New York 4-3 on Tuesday.
The Devil Rays are 10-4 against the Yankees in 2005 after beginning the season 31-80 against New York since entering the major leagues in 1998.
Jonny Gomes had two hits, scored a run and made a pair of strong throws in the sixth inning, helping keep the Devil Rays' deficit to a run.
The Yankees couldn't hold a three-run lead with Randy Johnson on the mound and lost the opener of a six-game homestand. New York fell four games behind the American League East-leading Boston, which opens a three-game series at Yankee Stadium on Friday.
Derek Jeter scored a run and drove in another for the Yankees.
Pinch-hitter Aubrey Huff singled off Mariano Rivera (6-4) with one out in the ninth, and pinch-runner Joey Gathright stole second. Julio Lugo hit a grounder behind second, which Cano allowed to go between his legs.
Chad Orvella (3-2) won in relief, and Danys Baez got the final three outs for his 34th save.
Red Sox 3, Angels 2
At Boston, David Ortiz hit a game-winning homer in the bottom of the ninth, and Tim Wakefield pitched his second complete game for the Red Sox.
Wakefield (15-10) allowed two runs and eight hits and walked three, two intentionally. He struck out seven for Boston's fourth complete game of the season and second in three games.
The Red Sox led 2-0 before the Angels tied it with runs in the sixth and seventh. Both teams squandered chances to take the lead until Ortiz connected off Scot Shields (8-11), who started the ninth by striking out Edgar Renteria.
Pinch-runner Eric Bruntlett stole two bases, then scored the decisive run on Jason Lane's single in the ninth inning to send the National League wild-card leading Houston Astros past the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1.
The Astros moved 1 1/2 games ahead of Philadelphia in the wild-card race with their 11th consecutive win over the Phillies.
Bruntlett's daring dashes made a winner of Roy Oswalt (17-11), who struck out eight, allowed six hits and one earned run in eight innings. Brad Lidge worked the ninth for his 34th save.
With one out in the ninth, Lance Berkman was walked by Billy Wagner (4-2) before Bruntlett came on.
Philadelphia's run came on Ryan Howard's fifth-inning homer. Craig Biggio homered in the first for Houston.
Cubs 5, Cardinals 2
At St. Louis, Chicago's Glendon Rusch was perfect for six innings and pitched into the eighth.
Derrek Lee hit his 40th homer on his 30th birthday and drove in two runs for the Cubs, who knocked out Matt Morris in the fifth and won for the fourth time in five games.
Corey Patterson also homered for the Cubs.
Leading off the seventh, David Eckstein singled up the middle to break up Rusch's perfect game. Rusch (6-8) allowed two runs on four hits in 7 2-3 innings, and Ryan Dempster got his 23rd save.
Morris (14-7) allowed four runs on nine hits.
Edgar Velazquez hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning to lift Puerto Rico to a 6-4 win over Taiwan. Taiwan led 4-3 in the sixth inning on a three-run shot by Kuo Chun-yu.
Puerto Rico improved to 3-1, as did Japan, which beat Colombia 12-0. Tsutomu Takanezawa and Daisuke Kusano both it three-run homers and Yoshikazu Doi gave up just four hits over seven innings for Japan. Keiji Ikebe also homered for Japan.
Lloyd McClendon was fired Tuesday as manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates with the team only one defeat away from a fifth consecutive losing season. Bench coach Pete Mackanin is set to serve as interim manager for the rest of the season.
The team is expected to begin searching immediately for a replacement for McClendon, a former Pirates player and coach.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier