Phillies-Yankees: Chien-Ming Wang Didn’t Relieve NY As Expected

Chien-Ming Wang came back Friday and got smashed by the Philadelphia Phillies like a roundhouse kick from the foot of Chuck Norris.

Wang came in relief during the seventh inning to face some tough hitters in the Philadelphia lineup.

He got Chase Utley out on a ground ball to start the inning, but then it went downhill.

Raul Ibanez hit his National League-leading 16th homer of the season, and it went out like a fat kid in a game of dodge ball. One of the longest shots at the new Yankee Stadium, it was hit to deep right-center.

He returned to strike out Ryan Howard looking, but getting Ryan Howard to strike out is like getting Mario Mendoza to hit below .200; anyone can do that.

Jayson Werth then took a sinker that didn’t sink well to center field for a base hit.

Shane Victorino then hit an 0-2 pitch right up the middle past Wang for the third hit of the inning.

A sharply hit ball by Matt Stairs stabbed by Mark Teixeira got Wang out of the inning to strand the two runners.

Wang returned to pitch the eighth inning as well.

The first batter he faced was Pedro Feliz, who hit a ground ball right up the middle for a single to start the inning. He then struck out Carlos Ruiz swinging to bounce back.

Jimmy Rollins then singled to left on the second pitch he saw on an 0-1 count, which was the fifth hit Wang gave up on the night.

Chase Utley then got an RBI single to right to plate Feliz and move Rollins to second.

Robinson Cano then saved another run as he snagged a ground ball, flipped it to Derek Jeter, who threw it to Mark Teixeira to end the inning on a double play.

After 41 pitches, six hits, and two earned runs, he returned for yet another inning to eat up some work in a four-run ball game.

Howard flew out to left-center on a routine fly ball to start the inning, then Werth walked.

Victorino flew out to right center for the second out of the inning.

A line drive off of the bat of Stairs to Cano ended the inning and Wang’s night.

Not a horrible outing, but still not what the Yankees were looking for. Still…it’s a start.

Wang had been scheduled to start on Friday for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at Pawtucket, but with injuries to Brian Bruney and Joba Chamberlain, an overworked pen needed someone to eat up innings.

Well, he can eat up some innings, but he can give up some runs too.

It’s hard to believe this is the same pitcher who had back-to-back seasons in 2006 and 2007 with 19 wins.

Wang had a 34.50 ERA in three big-league starts before going on the disabled list with weakness in his hips. He threw 13 scoreless innings at Triple-A and looked sharp in a bullpen session at Yankee Stadium.

Before the game Friday, Wang said, “Pitching as a whole, balance-wise, I feel much better.”

Well, it doesn’t look like he has it quite worked out yet, but to his credit, Raul Ibanez is on a tear and has hit a lot of pitchers well before the home run off of Wang.