Yankees 9 – Mariners 2
SEATTLE – Cy Wang.
OK, it sounds good, but don’t bet on it. Not with Roy Halladay the prohibitive favorite to win the AL Cy Young Award.
Yet, if Chien-Ming Wang continues to hurl the way he did last night when he beat the Mariners, 9-2, in front of 41,380 at Safeco Field, Wang is going to garner votes.
With the Yankees’ bullpen still not all the way back from the five-game series in Boston, Wang rendered the phone from dugout to pen useless until the outcome wasn’t in doubt.
In seven innings Wang gave up two cheap runs, seven hits, fanned five and didn’t issue a walk.
“He was back to his old self,” Joe Torre said of Wang. “He got a lot of groundballs and a lot of bad swings. He made it look easy, even if we know it isn’t.”
Wang, who improved to 15-5, won his second straight and is 7-1 since July 8.
The Yankees, who have won six of seven, remained 6 ½ games ahead of Boston. The Bombers are 10-7 with four games remaining on a 21-games in 20-day stretch.
Wang’s gem came hours after the Yankees put Mike Mussina on the 15-day DL with a right groin injury.
Robinson Cano drove in three runs and Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi and Jorge Posada added two RBIs each.
Nick Green, who filled in for Alex Rodriguez (viral infection of the throat), at third base, went 3-for-5.
Felix Hernandez, the Mariners’ 20-year-old stud right-hander, absorbed his third straight loss and is 10-12. In 3 2/3 innings, he gave up seven runs and nine hits.
The Mariners, who stopped an 11-game losing streak Tuesday, have dropped 12 of 13 and face Randy Johnson tonight.
Wang gave up two runs in the seventh but they were tainted a bit because of Green’s throwing error and two infield hits.
The Yankees stretched the lead to 9-2 in the eighth when they scored twice. Posada’s fly to left with the bases loaded and no outs made it 8-2 and Cano’s double to left upped the bulge to 9-2.
Wang cruised through five innings, allowing three hits and recording seven of the 15 outs on the ground. He gave up a one-out single in the first to Chris Snelling that led to nothing.
Wang retired the next 10 batters before Richie Sexson doubled to center with two outs and was stranded. Wang erased Jose Lopez’s leadoff infield single in the fifth by feeding Ben Broussard a grounder to Derek Jeter that started a 6-3 double play.
Hernandez was gone before the fourth inning ended and split trailing, 7-0. A leadoff walk to Cano in the fourth led to Hernandez’ exit and was followed by Melky Cabrera’s single.
After Craig Wilson failed to get a bunt down, the sign came off and Wilson fanned. Green followed with a single to right that loaded the bases for Damon, whose single to right plated two runs for a 4-0 lead.
With two outs and the bases loaded, Giambi scorched a grounder over the first-base bag for a two-run ground-rule double to make it 6-0. Posada’s RBI single upped the lead to 7-0.
Joel Pineiro replaced Hernandez and ended the rally by retiring Cano.
In the first inning, Bobby Abreu’s two-out single appeared innocent enough, but Hernandez walked Giambi and Posada to load the bases for Cano, who singled to center to score two.
