Wang Out In Front

Second time's the charm

At Fenway Park, Chien-Ming Wang had a losing record, one which he made up his mind not to repeat this year. It seemed that no one could stop Wang the Magnificent as he pitched his team to victory against Boston Friday night . . . but it wasn't as easy as it looked. He had his work cut out for him from the get-go with Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz coming up to bat; but with a look on his face as if gravity were weighing it down, he managed to scare both of them hitless. J.D. Drew broke Wang's vicious smackdown-a-thon to score a homer, which was nearly caught by Bobby Abreu. Lucky for Drew, the wall came alive and beat Abreu in the shoulder, making him lose hold of the ball. No one called for a foul on the wall's part. Boston manager Terry Francona apparently had no idea what to say about the matter, so he seettled for the obvious: “{Wang} was very efficient. The game plan is to get it up and stay in the middle of the field and we did at times. We had nothing to show for it."

Groan.

Though the victory was assured for the Yankees, Abreu is still sitting somewhere beating himself up over that one point that got away from him.

“I just didn’t find the wall very well,” he whined.

I'm sure it's easy to miss Abreu . . . it's only a giant wall . . .

“When I was making my jump, I banged myself into the wall. I hit my shoulder. It hit my glove. I should have caught it.” If it makes you feel any better, Abreu, the ball boy, er, man, couldn't catch it either as it bounced off the ground over the wall.

Regardles . . . coulda, woulda, shoulda, but didn't, that's the whole point. But maybe if you wish really hard, you can make it up next time. Then again . . . maybe not. But what does he think would have happened if he had managed to catch the ball? “A lot of things {were} going through my mind,” he warbled. “I was thinking, `if I catch the ball, it’s going to be a different game.’ “ Really? No? Okay . . .

Jason Giambi jumped on the penny-for-your-thoughts wagon by saying, “They hit a lot of balls hard, but they didn’t get a lot of hits. When they hit the ball hard, it was right at somebody. I know that feeling. I’ve been swinging the bat good, but I just didn’t get a lot of hits.” Well, he got one homer, which is more than what 99% of the Red Sox can say right now. That should count for something at the end of the night.

They're known for lengthy games that drudge on and on, trying to out-wit each other as much as out-play; but Wang wasn't taking any prisoners on Friday night, refusing to allow the Red Sox to bask in the glory of a Yankees defeat. Some say it's a curse, some say it's just talent, but all the man of the hour knows is how he feels about the game, saying only: “I felt especially good about this because I threw the ball well here in Boston and never pitched well here before.”

Short. Sweet. To the point.

- Heather Akena

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Created by: HeatherAkena Last edited by: Berlin