Wang unable to return to old form

YANKS LOSE 7-5 to Os


Chien-Ming Wang's last start on a big league diamond saw him limp off with a season-ending injury. He left under his own power this time, but the exit came much earlier than the Yankees would have liked.
Making his first start since last summer, Wang was rocked for seven runs and chased in the fourth inning by the Orioles, who held off a late surge to post a 7-5 victory over the Yankees on Wednesday.

Coming back from a right foot injury that dealt the Yankees' hopes a serious blow last June 15, running the bases in an Interleague game in Houston, Wang appeared strong during the spring and left the team with no health concerns.

But the right-hander never appeared to settle in against the Orioles, who took advantage of an ineffective sinker and rapped him for nine hits in 3 2/3 innings.

"It's been so long, and I just wanted to win so bad," Wang said through an interpreter.

Four of the first five batters he faced reached base, with Nick Markakis and Aubrey Huff knocking RBI doubles.

"He probably threw a handful of good sinkers, and that's about it," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "That's not his game. When he doesn't have his sinker, he's going to struggle, and that's what happened."

Gregg Zaun added a ground-rule RBI double in the fourth, driving home Luke Scott, and Cesar Izturis knocked in Felix Pie with an RBI groundout before Adam Jones popped a sacrifice fly.

Markakis closed the book on Wang by belting a two-run homer to right, chasing the righty and bringing on Edwar Ramirez to pitch with New York down by six runs, beginning a sequence of Yankees relievers essentially assigned to mopup duty in the season's second game.

"When you have a sinkerball pitcher throwing balls up in the zone and falling behind hitters, that's what happens," catcher Jorge Posada said. "It seemed like he couldn't really get in a groove."

Wang said that his body was moving ahead of his right arm, which has been lagging behind on pitches -- an issue he also battled during the spring. Though it has carried into the regular season, Wang remains confident it will be addressed.

"[Pitching coach] Dave Eiland said it's no big deal, and we can fix it in the bullpen," Wang said.

Thus far in the young season, the Yankees have not received the caliber of starting pitching they envisioned.

Wang walked three and struck out none, and including CC Sabathia's aborted Opening Day start on Monday against the Orioles, the next Yankees starter to go five innings -- or even record a strikeout -- will become the first.

"It's very frustrating," Posada said. "We've got guys that should pound the zone, and both of them have a very good idea of the strike zone. It seemed like both of them had a great game plan, and we're not pitching the way we're supposed to."

Meanwhile, the Yankees did not do much to solve the riddle of Japanese import Koji Uehara. Players spent some time this week reviewing video of the right-hander, gathering footage taken in Japan and during Spring Training, but ultimately, the data did not make a huge impact.

Making his big league debut after signing a two-year, $10 million contract with Baltimore, Uehara limited New York to one run on five hits in five innings, walking one and striking out none.

"It's a guy that we've never seen before, and he seemed to keep us off balance," Girardi said. "He got in some difficult counts, but he made the pitches when he had to."

New York's only run off Uehara came on Cody Ransom's RBI double in the fourth, cutting Baltimore's lead to one run at the time. Robinson Cano added an RBI double off Matt Albers in the sixth inning.

With only the hardiest of the pinstriped Interstate 95 travelers remaining, Derek Jeter belted a two-run homer off Dennis Sarfate with two outs in the ninth inning, and Mark Teixeira logged his first Yankees hit with an RBI double.

The hit came from the right side of the plate for Teixeira, who has been loudly booed in the first two games in Baltimore and was 0-for-8 since belting two home runs left-handed off Cubs pitching in an April 4 Spring Training game in New York.

"That's what makes me a little mad, because I'd been feeling so good all spring with my left-handed swing," Teixeira said. "The last two swings at Yankee Stadium, those exhibition games, I crushed two balls. I come here and I can't hit anything."

The late rally was not enough for the Yankees to avoid starting the season 0-2, the first time they've done so since 1998. Silver lining: Girardi caught on that club, which went on to win 114 regular-season games and the World Series.

"It's only two games; it's not like we're 30 games in," Girardi said. "Two games, to me, does not consist a start."