From Newsday

Wang gets Yankees back on track

Mariano Rivera is happy with his performance after closing out Friday night's game against the Mariners. (Newsday/ J. Conrad Williams Jr. / May 2, 2008)

BY JIM BAUMBACH | jim.baumbach@newsday.com

May 3, 2008

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Forget the youth movement with the Yankees' rotation. They need to find a way to clone Chien-Ming Wang.

With their offense hitting the snooze button and the rest of their pitching staff struggling, Wang has become just about the only sure thing the Yankees have. Imagine for a second where they'd be without him.

Against the Mariners on Friday night, Wang allowed only one run, three hits and two walks in six innings, helping the Yankees break their three-game losing streak with a 5-1 win. Wang extended his record to 6-0, leads the American League in victories and notched his 11th straight win when starting after a Yankees loss.

Manager Joe Girardi knocked on his wooden desk when that streak was mentioned to him. He said he didn't know about it, but he clearly wasn't surprised.

"We've won 15 games, and seven of those games are his," Girardi said. "So he's been pretty important to us."

Wang was the perfect pitcher to go for the Yankees on Friday night; they were in need of a strong outing almost as much as they were in need of a victory. Wang is 22-6 when he starts after a loss, and the Yankees are 27-7 overall in those games.

The Yankees' offense, with help from the Mariners' shoddy defense, gave Wang a 3-0 lead after two innings. He did exactly what Ian Kennedy couldn't do the night before: make an early three-run lead stand up.

Hideki Matsui's two-out RBI single to leftfield in the first inning and Melky Cabrera's two-run double in the second was all the offense Wang and the Yankees needed. Morgan Ensberg's RBI single and Jose Molina's sacrifice fly in the eighth provided a cushion.

Kyle Farnsworth, Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera each threw a scoreless inning to complete the four-hitter.

Wang may not talk too much in the clubhouse, but he's easily one of the most popular players on the team. It's almost as if everyone gets a rise whenever he pitches.

"He's our guy," Rivera said.

"As soon as we put some runs up, the guys in the bullpen, we know it's going to be a short night and so you better be ready fast," Chamberlain said.

"You know you're going to be active in the field," Girardi said. "You're going to be moving around, making plays. Players like that."

That was especially true on an unseasonably cold, breezy night. There was a 16-mph wind blowing from left to right and the temperature was in the mid-40s, so the Yankees were more than happy to be active.

The only sign of worry on this night came when Wang called Molina to the mound in the fifth and Molina called Girardi out. Wang had a cramp at the base of his right thumb, but within seconds, it went away. He pitched the sixth, but Girardi then replaced him with Farnsworth. "We figured it was best to get him out," he said.

Wang said his hand did not bother him after that lone incident in the fifth.

In addition to praising Wang, the Yankees should send a thank-you card to the Mariners for helping out. Seattle made four errors in the first three innings, and two of the Yankees' runs were a direct result of them.

Derek Jeter scored the first run on Matsui's single, but Jeter was on base only because Yuniesky Betancourt misplayed a routine grounder to his right with one out.

In the second, Ensberg reached when Adrian Beltre booted his grounder and would have been out on a strike-him-out, throw-him-out play if Jose Lopez hadn't dropped Jamie Burke's throw. After a single by Alberto Gonzalez, Cabrera hit Erik Bedard's first pitch over third base and down the leftfield line for a two-run double and a 3-0 lead.

They weren't the cleanest runs scored, but for a team that came in hitting just .241 (59-for-245) with men in scoring position, 12th in the American League, they saw it as progress.

"That's what you have to do," Girardi said, "especially against a guy like Bedard."

Saturday

Mariners at Yankees

1:05 p.m.

TV: YES

Radio: WCBS (880)