All Wang from the Beginning

Chien-Ming Wang has been 2 different pitchers at home and on the road this season. Unfortunately last night the road Wang was on the mound. The Yankees 19-game winner, simply put, got his ass kicked. His pitches were up in the zone all evening and the Indians jumped all over them to the tune of 8 runs in 4-plus inning. In the end the scoreboard read Indians 12 Yankees 3, and we as Yankees fans went to bed pissed off.

Before we get into the game, there are only a couple of bright spots to take from this. In recent years the Yankees have been the team to do the pounding in game 1, only to lose the playoff series. The other matter is game 2 is less than 7 hours away. So hopefully Andy Pettitte makes us forget about game 1 and we go back home at a game apiece. You can't ask for more than that when you open on the road. Now back to the regularly scheduled aggravation.

Things started out well, though with a hiccup. Johnny Damon led off the ball game with a solo HR to right field off of C.C. Sabathia, but the ball was initially ruled foul by right field ump Jim Wolf. At the behest of Joe Torre, Damon, and Tony Pena, the umps got together and corrected the call. One-out walks to Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez put the Yankees in good shape, but Sabathia struck out Jorge Posada and retired Hideki Matsui on a ground out to 2nd to escape further trouble.

Wang hit Grady Sizemore with his 1st pitch of the game, but bounced back by getting Asdrubal Cabrera to hit into a 6-4-3 double play. That would be the last good (clutch) pitch Wang would make on the night. The Indians reached him for 3 runs before a base running mistake by Jhonny Peralta mercifully ended the inning. Home runs by the Tribe's Cabrera and the Yankees Robinson Cano gave the Indians a 4-2 lead entering the 5th. That would be the Yankees last chance to make some noise.

Torre decided to try to "get something going" by pinch-hitting Shelley Duncan for Doug Mientkiewicz and the rook came through with a lead off single. Sabathia struggled with his control all night and walked Damon for his 5th free pass of the game. Torre decided to bypass the bunt, but the strategy failed when Derek Jeter flied to right. Abreu, who had already drawn a pair of walks, slapped a double down the left field line to cut the lead to 4-3 and put the tying and go ahead runs in scoring position.

Indians skipper Eric Wedge then made 2 big moves. First he had Sabathia intentionally walk A-Rod to load the bases, and then he stuck with his star left-hander. The move paid off as Sabathia battled back from a 3-0 count to blow a 95-mph fastball past Posada for the 2nd out. A slumping Matsui then popped out to end the inning and the Yankees chance of winning.

The tribe, lead by Kenny Lofton's (how pissed off did that make you?!) 3 hits and 4 RBI, pounded Wang and rookie Russ Ohlendorf. The kid looked like a deer in headlights and so far the gamble to keep him on the roster has not paid off.

The Yankees bats immediately went to sleep when the game got out of hand, managing just 1 hit over the final 4 innings against 3 Tribe relievers.

Torre also gave Phil Hughes a chance to get his feet wet by throwing a couple of innings. The phenom allowed a solo HR to Ryan Garko for his troubles. Jose Veras was the only Yankees pitcher to come out unscathed, retiring the only batter he faced.

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Making the night worse was listening to TBS' coverage. It's easy to get annoyed at your own announcers when you're losing, but listening to yahoos like Chip Caray makes it much worse.

photos courtesy of AP