CLEVELAND – Say hello to Chien-Ming Gong.
Pitted against Indians stud C.C. Sabathia, the leading Cy Young Award candidate, on a night the lefty was ripe for a spanking, Chien-Ming Wang dug the Yankees an ALDS grave they may not have enough arms to dig out of.
“Everything went bad,” Wang said following an embarrassing 12-3 loss to the Indians in Game 1 that was witnessed by a Jacobs Field gathering of 44,608.
Really, it couldn’t have gone any worse. In 42/3 innings Wang gave up eight runs, nine hits (two homers), walked four and hit a batter. With the Indians ignoring his signature sinking fastball, Wang was forced to pitch up in the zone and was hammered.
“He doesn’t understand how to fight when something’s not working; he will as he gets older,” said pitching coach Ron Guidry, who acknowledged Wang relied on a slider more than usual when the Indians didn’t offer at the sinker. “You saw a lot of balls hit in the air and you never see that. He doesn’t understand how to combat that.”
Joe Torre chose Andy Pettitte to start Game 2 tonight because he called “it a pivotal game” before the ALDS opened. Now, it’s a critical tilt in the best-of-five series because the Yankees must avoid a 2-0 ditch going into Game 3 with a suspect Roger Clemens slated to start. On the bright side the Yankees, under Torre, have won all five of the ALDS in which they dropped the opener. But Fausto Carmona, the Indians’ right-handed answer to Sabathia, opposes Pettitte.
Staked to a 1-0 lead on Johnny Damon’s leadoff homer in the first, Wang gave up three runs in the first.
Asdrubal Cabrera homered in the third, but Robinson Cano’s homer in the fourth and Bobby Abreu’s RBI double in the fifth cut the deficit to 4-3 and gave the Yankees more than a chance against Sabathia, who struggled with his control from the start. In five innings he gave up three runs, four hits and six walks (one intentional).
Nevertheless, Wang, a 19-game winner, gave up a two-run homer to Victor Martinez, and an RBI single to Kenny Lofton (3-for-4; four RBIs) in the fifth and was replaced by Ross Ohlendorf, who issued a walk and a two-run double to Casey Blake that broke the game open.
Though the onus for the lopsided loss falls on Wang’s head, he wasn’t alone in the blame department. Sabathia walked Abreu and Alex Rodriguez with one out in the first, but Jorge Posada was blown away by a 96-mph fastball and Hideki Matsui grounded out. In the fifth, Abreu’s opposite-field double into the left-field corner scored a run, but when Rodriguez was walked intentionally, the bases were loaded for Posada.
Sabathia’s first three pitches were out of the strike zone before Posada fouled off a center-cut fastball. He eventually fanned and Matsui popped up a 2-0 pitch.
“That was the at-bat that changed the inning, the at-bat that changed the whole game,” Martinez said.
What has to change tonight is Pettitte being substantially better than Wang.
“We certainly need to do a better job and we expect Andy to do that,” Torre said.
If Pettitte gets punished like Wang, get ready to hear about the end of The Torre Era. And start the clock on the Rodriguez opt-out watch. Pettitte has often said he came back to the Yankees to help them get another World Series title.
Tonight he can help them take a baby step toward that lofty goal. If he fails, the Yankees could be looking at their third straight one-and-done October.