Yanks' Capital 'L' Wang falls on HR in 9th BY SAM BORDEN DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER WASHINGTON - Chien-Ming Wang staggered off the mound looking sick, as though someone had just punched him in the stomach. Alex Rodriguez came over and laid a hand on Wang's shoulder, whispering an encouraging word in his ear, but Wang barely responded. There was little to say. Moments later, Wang - who is perhaps the least expressive person on the team - flung his glove on the floor of the dugout and no one was surprised. After saving the Bombers' beleaguered bullpen with eight strong innings, Wang was two outs away from a complete-game victory when one mistake - his only mistake of the day, he said - turned it into a loss. Wang knew that his first pitch to Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman in the ninth inning yesterday wasn't low enough the moment it left his hand, and catcher Jorge Posada said he was just hoping that Zimmerman wouldn't swing. Unfortunately for the Yankees, the rookie did, and his two-run homer sent the Yanks to a jarring 3-2 loss at RFK Stadium, the second straight day the Bombers were victims of a Nationals comeback. "I don't call this 'blowing a lead' because the kid pitched his heart out," Joe Torre said. "He was spectacular in a game when we needed every bit of it." On just about any other day, Wang (7-3) wouldn't have even been in the game in the final frame but the Yanks' bullpen was sapped, having thrown 12 innings in the past three days. Torre entered the game knowing he didn't have injured Kyle Farnsworth, or Mariano Rivera and Scott Proctor, who needed days off, so it was imperative that Wang pitch deep into the game. Rivera began stretching in the late innings, anyway, hoping that Torre might reconsider and bring him in for a third straight game, but the manager was steadfast. Rivera watched the ninth from his seat in the pen, helpless to do anything other than wish he was on the mound. "That's my job," he said afterward. "To see Wang, the great game he pitched, lose like that - I would prefer me to lose the game instead of him." Rodriguez gave the Yanks a 2-1 lead in the eighth with an RBI double and Wang began to show signs of fatigue in the bottom of the inning, walking Brendan Harris and Alfonso Soriano. The Nationals might have tied the game when Jose Vidro laced a line drive toward the left-center field gap, but Melky Cabrera made a running catch to end the inning and keep the Bombers in front. Despite that near miss and possibility that temperatures hovering near 90 degrees might have taken their toll on Wang, Torre felt the righthander was the best option available and didn't pinch-hit for him in the top of the ninth. Torre had Ron Villone and lefty specialist Mike Myers warming up, but Wang began the inning with his specialty - a ground-ball out - from Jose Guillen, then got Marlon Anderson to hit another bouncer, though this one went through for a single to right. Still, Torre wasn't alarmed, seeing the grounders as "good signs." One more ground ball might go for a game-ending double play, and the manager believed that Wang - who had thrown 106 pitches to that point - still was keeping his sinker down. That's why, even just watching from the dugout, Torre felt himself tense as soon as he saw where the first pitch to Zimmerman was. High. One swing and the game was over. "(Wang) didn't deserve that fate," Johnny Damon said. "No way did we think it would be with that type of ending." Originally published on June 19, 2006 http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/story/427794p-360767c.html --

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