Wang, 'D' Edge Tribe 1-0

Indians Well Grounded

Chien-Ming Wang pitched a master 7 1-3 innings and Melky Cabrera and Kevin Thompson made key defensive plays as the Yankees topped Cleveland 1-0 to snap their 4 game losing streak. Wang fired a hard sinker all night that resulted in 14 ground ball outs and 3 strike outs. Two of the 5 outs were recorded on a nice defensive plays by the Yankees kid corner outfield. Robinson Cano supplied the only offense with his 4th home run of the season. With the Red Sox loss to the Twins, the Yankees moved back into a share of first place in the AL East.

Melky Cabrera was shaded towards center with heavy hitter Travis Hafner up, but Hafner lofted one towards the left field line. Running full out, Cabrera caught the ball and slammed into the thinly padded wall in foul territory. He was noticeably wincing and grabbing his side after the play, but stayed in the ball game.

The Indians best threat came after Grady Sizemore led off the sixth with a double. Casey Blake then drove one to deep right that Kevin Thompson racing towards the warning track. Glove outstretched, Thompson caught the ball before putting his hands up to brace himself against the right field wall. Sizemore tagged up and went to third on the play. That brought the dangerous Hafner to the plate with one down. After Wang fell behind in the count, 2-0, the Yankees opted to intentionally walk Hafner and take their chances with Victor Martinez. It paid off as Martinez grounded to Robinson Cano for the start of an inning ending 4-6-3 double play.

The Yankee hitters were having no better luck with soft tossing Paul Byrd. Mixing speeds, Byrd kept the Yankee hitters off balance all night, especially Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod normally feasts on pitchers like Byrd, but struck out three times and popped out weakly. As has become the norm of late, the fans showered the 2005 AL MVP with boos. A-Rod wasn't the only Yankee not coming through the clutch though. The Bombers had their lead off man on in each of the first 5 innings, but failed to score. Robinson Cano finally solved Byrd in the 6th, when he hit a hanging breaking pitch into the right field seats to break the scoreless tie.

Cleveland had one final scoring chance in the 8th, but the Yankees pen came through. After Aaron Boone led off with a single and was sacrificed to second by Ramon Vazquez, Torre opted to pull Wang after 90 pitches to set up a lefty-lefty match up against Sizemore. Mike Myers did his job by getting Sizemore to fly out to Johnny Damon in center. Kyle Farnsworth then came on to retire Blake on a ground out to Cano.

An Andy Phillips error on Hafner's lead off grounder in the 9th gave the Indians one more base runner, but Mariano Rivera shut the door. Victor Martinez flied to center and then Rivera struck out Eduardo Perez and Ronnie Belliard to record his 13th save.

Notes

Derek Jeter returned to shortstop and played a flawless game despite being in obvious pain. The only time it showed is when he was jammed in his final time at-bat and shook his hand in pain.

Jason Giambi sat out again with his bruised finger after he was unable to comfortably hold a bat during batting practice. He hopes to return tonight.

Gary Sheffield underwent successful surgery on his wrist yesterday. He is still expected to miss 12 weeks.

Octavio Dotel began his rehab stint at Triple-A Columbus last night. Dotel allowed 2 runs on 3 hits and struck out 1 in 1 inning of work. He threw 19 pitches, 14 of them for strikes. Sean Henn also came off the DL to start the game for Columbus and was ineffective, allowing 4 runs on 4 hits and 4 walks in 4 innings pitched.

Number one prospect Phil Hughes threw a gem last night as Double-A Trenton shut out New Hampshire 3-0. Hughes allowed just 1 hit over 7 innings while walking 3 and striking out 8. He's now 3-3, 3.80 for the Thunder.