Wang speaks softly, stymies Sox’ sticks By Rob Bradford Friday, August 31, 2007 NEW YORK - The soft-spoken kid from Taiwan might have provided the Yankees’ loudest message all week. Chien-Ming Wang, who has struggled to master most of the Red Sox [team stats]’ hitters throughout much of his three-year big league career, showed yesterday he might be coming down the back end of the learning curve just in time to induce pennant race nightmares throughout New England. In his fourth start of the season against the Red Sox, Wang pitched masterfully, allowing just one Mike Lowell [stats] hit as New York won, 5-0, in the series finale at Yankee Stadium. And that single to right field only came after he cruised through the first six innings without surrendering a hit. “It was,” said Yankees manager Joe Torre, “just an important game to get a guy to pitch like that.” In Wang’s first seven career starts against the Sox, including an April outing this season, he compiled a 2-4 mark with a 5.05 ERA. Up and down the Red Sox lineup, the matchups seemed one-sided. Against Wang, David Ortiz [stats] and Eric Hinske both were hitting .500, with the Sox designated hitter going 12-for-24 and Hinske batting 10-for-20. Kevin Youkilis [stats] was at .389, Alex Cora [stats] was hitting .313, and Dustin Pedroia [stats] had notched three hits in as many at-bats against the 27-year-old sinkerballer. “The thing that is probably most important is that he knows what he has to do,” said Torre, whose team became the first to have starters take no-hitters into the sixth inning on consecutive days against the same team in the last 57 years, according to Elias Sports Bureau. “He hasn’t really concerned himself as much with who he’s facing. That’s what makes him successful.” Since that April 29 loss, Wang has won all three of his starts against the Red Sox, allowing just five runs in 19 innings (2.37 ERA). “(These) last two times I threw a lot more change of speed, more sliders, more changeups,” said Wang, the third Taiwan native to make the majors. “(Yankees catcher Jorge) Posada called good pitches.” As good of a game plan as the Yankees might have presented Wang, his execution was even better. Playing off a fastball that reached as high as 97 mph, the righty fanned two of his biggest nemeses, Ortiz and Hinske, four times in seven at-bats. And making the news even less palatable for the Red Sox going forward is that it isn’t just them that Wang has seemed to figure out. He was coming off an eight-inning gem against Detroit in which he allowed just one earned run. The key, according to Yankees pitching coach Ron Guidry, is that Wang is speeding up his approach to home plate, while throwing his trademark sinker a bit harder for control’s sake. “When you start committing early to those pitches at 93-plus when he’s throwing his changeup like he did today, it’s hard to hit (the offspeed stuff),” explained Guidry. “That’s all he’s doing. His pitches are a lot better and a lot crisper.” The Red Sox better hope they’re not too much better or crisper. --

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