Taiwanese pitcher Wang Chien-ming of the New York Yankees secured two scoreless innings of relief in an American League baseball game against the Texas Rangers on Wednesday at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Texas, helping the Yankees to a 9-2 victory.
His outstanding performance shows Wang is determined to regain his starter role.
Wang had already made one appearance in relief last Friday against the Philadelphia Phillies.
In Wednesday’s game, he stepped up in the eighth inning to strike out the first batter right away. He retired all six hitters that he faced in the two innings.
Although the speed of Wang’s pitches were not particularly fast, he was much steadier than in his outings at the beginning of the season.
He struck out two and finished the two innings with 26 pitches, and 18 strikes, giving the coaches a nudge that he is ready to make a comeback.
Starter A.J. Burnett threw six scoreless innings to earn his first victory in more than a month as New York’s victory gained them a share of the AL East lead.
The Yankees, who have won 12 of 15, are tied atop the division with Boston. It is the first time this season New York has been in first place in the AL East.
Derek Jeter was 3 for 4 and reached base five times, and Mark Teixeira added his 12th homer this month.
Wang said during an interview on Tuesday that manager Joe Girardi had told him he had no plans to add him to the rotation and he would continue as a reliever for now.
In other games on Wednesday it was:
• Orioles 12, Toronto 10 (11 inns)
• Detroit 8, Kansas City 3
• Seattle 6, Oakland 1
• Cleveland 12, Tampa Bay 7
• Minnesota 4, Boston 2
• LA Angels 3, White Sox 1
• St Louis 3, Milwaukee 2
• Cubs 5, Pittsburgh 2
• Dodgers 8, Colorado 6
• Florida 6, Philadelphia 2
• Cincinnati 6, Houston 1
• Mets 7, Washington 4
• San Diego 8, Arizona 5
• San Francisco 6, Atlanta 3
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