It don't get much better than that! Chien-Ming Wang was firing on all cylinders in last night's 4-1 win over Boston in the first of three series (and first of eighteen regular season) games that Yankees will play against their rival team. Yes, one could argue that certain things could have made the outing a little sweeter for the Yankee's ace. Had Abreu caught that ball at the wall there would have been no home run and if Wang could have also made that out in the ninth on the bunt, then he would have pitched a perfect game. Now although that would have been awesome, it didn't happen; so let's not diminish Wang's stellar performance last night by adding all those footnotes. Wang threw a total of 93 pitches in nine complete innings (61 of those pitches were strikes). In that time, he faced 29 batters (only 2 more than the minimum) to average 3.2 pitches per batter! He finished his night with a 1.23 ERA.
The Yankee offense continues to improve as we saw Giambi hit his first Home Run of the year. It was nice to see him smiling in the post game interview on the field. In fact, many Yankees had much to be proud of last night. Molina seems to be showing a liking for doubles, making two of them last night for a total of six so far this season... not too shabby for a back-up catcher. In fact, signing him this winter for two years of service was an incredibly smart move by Cashman. Alberto Gonzalez is really looking sharp batting .375 in the short three days he has been here.
This was an important win for the Yankees mostly, I believe, because they needed something to put some more spring in their step. If you ask a Yankee on air about how they react when playing against Boston they will more than likely tell you that 'it is just another game- one out of 162'. But the truth is, it matters. It definitely matters. Not even so much because of the past rivalry (I really don't think stories of shirts buried in concrete matter too much to them) but because they are facing a team that plays ball at their level (though slightly below their level, I might correct). Every game matters, but the games played against the Red Sox always matter more. So, off we go this afternoon with the Moose going against Beckett... a good match up. I am feeling positive.
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