Yankees have no magic Wang
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |  | R | H | E | |
| NY Yankees | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 0 | |
| Baltimore | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 7 | 9 | 1 |
WP - Uehara (1-0) SV - Sherrill (1) LP - Wang (0-1)
That thud you hear is the start of the Yankees regular season. After winning 18 of their last 20 exhibition games, the Yankees were pumped to start the regular season. The Baltimore Orioles have quickly let the air out of the balloon.
It was a different day and a different pitcher, but the results were the same- a loss. Chien-Ming Wang made his first start since his Lisfranc injury last June 15 in Houston. He’d like to have a do over. The Orioles smacked Wang around Orioles Park at Camden Yards and came away with a 7-5 victory.
Wang’s pitches were up in the strike zone all night and landed in the gaps and over the wall as a result. He struggled right from the start of the game, giving up consecutive one out doubles to Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, and Aubrey Huff to put the Yankees in a 2-0 hole after one inning. He pitched an easy second inning, but allowed three base runners in the third, before escaping unscathed.
Cody Ransom cut the deficit in half with an RBI double in the top of the fourth, but the wheels came completely off for Wang in the bottom half of the inning. Luke Scott opened the inning with a single and Felix Pie worked a walk. Gregg Zaun ripped a ground rule double to center field for a 3-1 O’s lead. Huff’s RBI ground out pushed the margin to 4-1 as Edwar Ramirez got up in the Yankees pen.
After a Brian Roberts single, Jones brought in the fifth run with a sacrifice fly and then Markakis sent Wang to the showers with a 2-run blast into the right field seats. It was Wang’s shortest non-injury outing since June 5 of last season when Toronto knocked him out in the box after 4.1 innings.
Orioles Rookie, and former Japanese star, Koji Uehara looked nervous when he walked Derek Jeter to start the game, but he settled down thereafter. The Yankees put a man on second base in four straight innings, but save for Ransom’s RBI double,Uehara got out of the minor jam each time. He nearly saw his first major league win go by the boards though when the Yankees rallied against the Orioles bullpen in the ninth.
The Yankees were down to their final out, when Jeter took Dennis Sarfate deep with a man aboard to cut the Orioles lead to 7-4. When Sarfate walked Johnny Damon, Orioles manager Dave Trembley sent for his closer George Sherrill to face Mark Teixeira, who was struggling through another bad night at the plate and hearing plenty of boos from the Baltimore “vengeful”. But Teixeira, batting from the right side for the first time this season, drilled a double up the gap in right-center to plate Damon and give the Yankees a chance with the tying run at the plate.
Uehara’s former teammate Hideki Matsui had the chance to be a hero, but fouled out to third baseman Melvin Mora to end the game.
Game Notes
Derek Jeter (5-9) and Robinson Cano (4-7) have both started the season with multi-hit games. They each also stole their first base of the season as did Johnny Damon.
Jeter’s home run was his 207th as a Yankee, putting him two behind Jason Giambi for 10th place on the franchise’s all-time home run list.
Nick Markakis was 3-3 with a walk, falling a triple shy of the cycle. He’s 5-7 in the two games.
The loss marked the first time the Yankees have lost two straight to start the season since 1998 when they lost their first three games.
The Yankees will try to salvage the finale of the series on Thursday (1:35 pm EDT start) when A.J. Burnett makes his Yankees debut against rookie right-hander Alfredo Simon.
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