SARASOTA, Fla. – A long stride resulted in a short stint for Chien-Ming Wang yesterday at Ed Smith Stadium.
Wang, the Yankees’ Opening Day starter and winner of 19 games in each of the previous two seasons, allowed the initial five batters to reach base, and when he left with two outs in the opening frame, the Reds had scored five runs.
The ineffective outing by the staff ace followed an awful performance by Joba Chamberlain and a mediocre one by Ian Kennedy on Wednesday.
“I couldn’t get the ball down and it stayed high,” said Wang, who gave up six runs, six hits and walked two in two-thirds of an inning in a 12-8 loss. “My stride was too long.”
Asked if the mound caused the problem, Wang said, “I don’t know. I tried to shorten it but I couldn’t.”
Wang said he was “upset a little bit,” but has the benefit of being in spring training to apply a quick fix to the alarming problem.
“The change-up was good, the sinker sometimes good, sometimes bad,” Wang said. “I tried too hard and had a long stride. Spring training is important for a pitcher to get a motion.”
Wang gave up singles to Norris Hopper and Jeff Keppinger to start the game and walked Ken Griffey Jr. to load the bases. Adam Dunn and Edwin Encarnacion followed with singles before Wang registered his first out by getting Scott Hatteberg to pop out. A walk to Joey Votto loaded the bases and Javier Valentin followed with a sacrifice fly. Andy Green doubled and when Hopper singled off second baseman Wilson Betemit’s glove, Scott Patterson replaced him.
“His sinker was up, his slider was flat, he got in bad counts and they were aggressive,” Joe Girardi said of Wang, who went to the bullpen and threw after throwing 33 pitches in the game. “You don’t ever like to get your butt kicked. We are trying to build arm strength, and we have work to do. I am not concerned, but obviously it’s not what you want to see.”
“It’s early so he is feeling strong,” pitching coach Dave Eiland said of Wang. “He got under some pitches and wasn’t getting late movement. It was a rough day for him, but he will be OK. He knows what he needs to do. We will get him on track. If it is going to happen, you would rather have it happen in early March.”
Reds 12 Yankees 8