Rookie Taiwanese righty Wang Chien-ming (王建民) overcame a rough start on a wet evening in the Bronx to pitch the New York Yankees past the Cleveland Indians in a 5-4 victory on Friday. It's Wang's sixth win of the season in his first year with the Yankees.
After allowing a home run to Cleveland's leadoff man Grady Sizemore on the opening pitch and dropping another run in the second inning on a two-out, RBI single to Aaron Boone to trail the Indians by two in the early going, Wang quickly settled down and retired the next seven batters, restraining an Indians attack that initially seemed ready to blow the game wide.
While Wang held his ground during a scoreless third and fourth, the Yankees bats awoke with a four-run third inning against Cleveland starter Cliff Lee on a run-scoring single by Derek Jeter and an RBI ground out by Robinson Cano, before Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi singled in one run each to put the Bronx Bombers ahead 4-2.
The Indians cut the Yankees lead down to a run in the fifth inning after Jody Gerut led off the inning with a walk issued by Wang and scored from third base on a wild pitch that sailed on the Taiwanese rookie.
But the one-run advantage was promptly increased to two again in the sixth inning when Jorge Posada's sacrifice fly to deep-left paved the way home for Hideki Matsui after the Japanese slugger had jump-started the Yankees with a stand-up double.
The run by Posada proved to be the difference in the game because -- fortunately for New York and Wang, who left the game with a 5-3 cushion two-outs into the seventh -- the Indians would rally for a run off Yankees ace closer Mariano Rivera in the ninth, before falling short by a run.
It was Rivera's first yielded run in 23 innings, but the normally sure-handed closer still managed to pick up his 19th save in 21 chances for the year.
With the narrow win -- his second one-run victory in as many starts -- Wang improved to 6-3 for the year.
The Taiwanese MLB rookie allowed three runs on seven hits in 6-2/3 innings of work, while receiving plenty of help from a defense that turned three double plays to keep the damage by the Indians to a minimum.
Wang's ERA rose slightly from 3.87 to 3.89, but it remains the best in a Yankees rotation that includes legends Randy Johnson (4.14) and Mike Mussina (3.97).
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