Wang near-perfect in win as M’s Weaver takes loss
NEW YORK – Always unflappable, Chien-Ming Wang was nearly unhittable Saturday. Perfect, in fact, before one misplaced changeup.
Wang carried his bid for a perfect game into the eighth inning before Ben Broussard hit the only changeup he threw all day for a one-out homer, and the New York Yankees beat the Seattle Mariners 8-1.
Catcher Jorge Posada knew the changeup was in trouble from the start.
“As soon as he threw it,” Posada said, “I was just hoping the guy didn’t swing at it.”
Facing a Mariners team that got season highs of 15 runs and 20 hits the previous night, Wang (1-2) was in control the whole way.
Seattle struggled to do anything with Wang’s heavy sinker, one of the best pitches in the majors. One simple changeup did him in. Wang said he left the ball “high.”
He got Richie Sexson to roll back to him for the first out of the eighth, but Broussard followed with a homer to right-center.
“It’d feel better if we had won,” Broussard said. “But, definitely, I think everybody’s a competitor. Nobody wants to get no-hit. I think everybody was going up just trying to have a good at-bat, maybe see some pitches and see what happens.”
The Yankee Stadium crowd saluted Wang with a long, standing ovation. The right-hander stood behind the mound for a moment with his hat off, briefly clenched his jaw and wiped sweat from his brow. Posada went to the mound to talk to him.
Jose Guillen was up next, and he singled. Kenji Johjima then bounced into a double play to end the inning. Wang walked slowly to the dugout as some of his teammates ran past him, giving him a pat on the back on their way to the bench.
Wang was trying for the 16th perfect game since 1900, including Don Larsen’s for the Yankees in the 1956 World Series.
The last two perfect games in the A.L. have occurred at Yankee Stadium, by New York’s David Cone (1999) and David Wells (1998). Larsen pitched his there.
Brian Bruney took over for Wang to begin the ninth and finished off the two-hitter.
Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki hit a grounder off Wang’s left shin in the fourth but the right-hander threw him out at first. The trainer came out to check on him but Wang was fine.
Ichiro led off the seventh with a deep drive into the gap, but left fielder Hideki Matsui caught it on the run.
“He wasn’t leaving a whole lot over the middle of the plate,” said Willie Bloomquist, who went 0 for 3. “It’s deceptive because when you’re up there it looks like it’s going to be down the heart of the plate but then that late movement kind of gets in on you, or jams you a little bit, or makes you hit it off the end.”
New York broke open the game in the sixth when Jeff Weaver (0-5) started struggling with his control which led to a five-run inning. Weaver hit Matsui with a pitch with the bases loaded and also walked Melky Cabrera to force in another run.
Posada also had a run-scoring single and Jeter a two-run double in the five-run inning.
Weaver, who recorded just one out in his previous start, went 5 2/3 innings against the Yankees, allowing six runs and nine hits. Weaver has given up 29 runs and 40 hits in 17 innings over five starts this season.
“He threw the ball well,” said Mariners manager Mike Hargrove, who added Weaver will take his next turn in the rotation. “If he throws like that the rest of the year we’re going to be all right.”