GAME THREAD: GAME THREAD: AL: BOSTON (80-53) at NY YANKEES (74-59)

Wang takes no-hitter into seventh before Yanks complete sweep

<h3>NY YANKEES 5, BOSTON 0</h3>BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- The New York Yankees already had ashare of the wild card. Thanks to a near-historic effort byChien-Ming Wang on Thursday, the Yankees can renew their sightson the American League East.


Wang took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and Robinson Canohomered twice as the Yankees completed a three-game sweep of theBoston Red Sox with a 5-0 victory.


Following a 2-5 road trip, the Yankees won their third game in arow and will maintain at least a tie with the Seattle Marinersin the wild card. They could go ahead if the Mariners loseThursday night in Cleveland.


The Yankees entered this series eight games out of first placein the East before slicing it down to five. Since fallingbehind by 14 1/2 games, the closest they have been to the RedSox has been four games, which is where New York was 11 daysago.


Wang (16-6) won that game on August 19, pitching six innings ina 9-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers. But on an 85-degreeafternoon, he was much sharper.


The 27-year-old righthander yielded just four walks through sixframes before finally seeing his no-hit bid end in aninteresting top of the seventh inning.


Kevin Youkilis led off with a grounder to shortstop Derek Jeter,who shorthopped a throw to first base that forced first basemanJason Giambi off the bag. The play was ruled an error and the<div class="pre">no-hitter remained intact.</div>

Two pitches later, Wang's bid for the first Yankee no-hittersince David Cone's perfect game in 1999 ended as Mike Lowellextended his hitting streak to 12 games with a single to rightfield.


After Lowell's base hit, the events at Yankee Stadium reallybecame interesting.


J.D. Drew hit a grounder to third baseman Alex Rodriguez, whoattempted to tag Youkilis before the Boston first baseman ranout of the baseline.


Rodriguez recovered to throw out Drew at first and, aftervoicing his displeasure about Youkilis' route to third, theumpires conferred before deciding to call Youkilis out.

Youkilis stormed off the field and Boston manager Terry Franconaargued before being ejected by second base umpire DerrylCousins. After play resumed, Wang finished his 103-pitch outingby striking out Jason Varitek.


It was the second straight game the Yankees flirted withhistory. On Wednesday, Roger Clemens took a no-hitter into thesixth before allowing a solo home run to David Ortiz.

In that contest, he got some unexpected defensive help fromGiambi and, in this one, Wang had some similar assistance.Giambi helped complete a 5-4-3 double play in the second inningand made a nice stop on Dustin Pedroia's groundout to end thethird.


The Yankees did not pound Curt Schilling (8-6), who allowed tworuns and six hits in seven innings. But two of those hits weresolo home runs by Cano, who hit an 85-mph fastball overthe left-center field fence in the third and a drilled afirst-pitch splitter to a similar spot in the fifth.

That was enough for Wang, who despite tying a season worst withfour walks, finished with five strikeouts and also recorded 10outs on the ground. Wang won his third straight start,improving to 15-3 in his last 21 starts and has won his lastthree outings vs. the Red Sox.


Rookie reliever Joba Chamberlain worked around a hit by Pedroiain the eighth and the Yankees tacked on three runs in the bottomof the inning off Hideki Okajima.


Derek Jeter, who had four singles, scored on Bobby Abreu'sdouble. During Hideki Matsui's at-bat, Abreu and Rodriguezpulled off a double steal and scored when catcher JasonVaritek's throw to third skipped into left field.


Not allowing a run in his first 11 frames in the majors,Chamberlain was ejected by home plate umpire Angel Hernandez atthe start of the ninth when he unleashed two fastballs over thehead of Youkilis.


Edwar Ramirez came on to seal the final three outs for New York,which record its first sweep of the Red Sox at home since June29-July 1, 2004.


The crushing sweep ended a 6-4 road trip for Boston, which willhost the Baltimore Orioles starting Friday.

 

Wang takes no-hitter into seventh before Yanks complete sweep

<h3>NY YANKEES 5, BOSTON 0</h3>By Larry Fleisher
PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer


BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- The New York Yankees already had ashare of the wild card. Thanks to a near-historic effort byChien-Ming Wang on Thursday, the Yankees can renew their sightson the American League East.


Wang took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and Robinson Canohomered twice as the Yankees completed a three-game sweep of theBoston Red Sox with a 5-0 victory.


Following a 2-5 road trip, the Yankees won their third game in arow and will maintain at least a tie with the Seattle Marinersin the wild card. They could go ahead if the Mariners loseThursday night in Cleveland.


The Yankees entered this series eight games out of first placein the East before slicing it down to five. Since fallingbehind by 14 1/2 games, the closest they have been to the RedSox has been four games, which is where New York was 11 daysago.


Wang (16-6) won that game on August 19, pitching six innings ina 9-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers. But on an 85-degreeafternoon, he was much sharper.


The 27-year-old righthander yielded just four walks through sixframes before finally seeing his no-hit bid end in aninteresting top of the seventh inning.


Kevin Youkilis led off with a grounder to shortstop Derek Jeter,who shorthopped a throw to first base that forced first basemanJason Giambi off the bag. The play was ruled an error and the<div class="pre">no-hitter remained intact.</div>

Two pitches later, Wang's bid for the first Yankee no-hittersince David Cone's perfect game in 1999 ended as Mike Lowellextended his hitting streak to 12 games with a single to rightfield.


After Lowell's base hit, the events at Yankee Stadium reallybecame interesting.


J.D. Drew hit a grounder to third baseman Alex Rodriguez, whoattempted to tag Youkilis before the Boston first baseman ranout of the baseline.


Rodriguez recovered to throw out Drew at first and, aftervoicing his displeasure about Youkilis' route to third, theumpires conferred before deciding to call Youkilis out.

Youkilis stormed off the field and Boston manager Terry Franconaargued before being ejected by second base umpire DerrylCousins. After play resumed, Wang finished his 103-pitch outingby striking out Jason Varitek.


It was the second straight game the Yankees flirted withhistory. On Wednesday, Roger Clemens took a no-hitter into thesixth before allowing a solo home run to David Ortiz.

In that contest, he got some unexpected defensive help fromGiambi and, in this one, Wang had some similar assistance.Giambi helped complete a 5-4-3 double play in the second inningand made a nice stop on Dustin Pedroia's groundout to end thethird.


The Yankees did not pound Curt Schilling (8-6), who allowed tworuns and six hits in seven innings. But two of those hits weresolo home runs by Cano, who hit an 85-mph fastball overthe left-center field fence in the third and a drilled afirst-pitch splitter to a similar spot in the fifth.

That was enough for Wang, who despite tying a season worst withfour walks, finished with five strikeouts and also recorded 10outs on the ground. Wang won his third straight start,improving to 15-3 in his last 21 starts and has won his lastthree outings vs. the Red Sox.


Rookie reliever Joba Chamberlain worked around a hit by Pedroiain the eighth and the Yankees tacked on three runs in the bottomof the inning off Hideki Okajima.


Derek Jeter, who had four singles, scored on Bobby Abreu'sdouble. During Hideki Matsui's at-bat, Abreu and Rodriguezpulled off a double steal and scored when catcher JasonVaritek's throw to third skipped into left field.


Not allowing a run in his first 11 frames in the majors,Chamberlain was ejected by home plate umpire Angel Hernandez atthe start of the ninth when he unleashed two fastballs over thehead of Youkilis.


Edwar Ramirez came on to seal the final three outs for New York,which record its first sweep of the Red Sox at home since June29-July 1, 2004.


The crushing sweep ended a 6-4 road trip for Boston, which willhost the Baltimore Orioles starting Friday.

 

Wang takes no-hitter into seventh before Yanks complete sweep

<h3>NY YANKEES 5, BOSTON 0</h3>By Larry Fleisher
PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer


BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- The New York Yankees already had ashare of the wild card. Thanks to a near-historic effort byChien-Ming Wang on Thursday, the Yankees can renew their sightson the American League East.


Wang took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and Robinson Canohomered twice as the Yankees completed a three-game sweep of theBoston Red Sox with a 5-0 victory.


Following a 2-5 road trip, the Yankees won their third game in arow and will maintain at least a tie with the Seattle Marinersin the wild card. They could go ahead if the Mariners loseThursday night in Cleveland.


Despite the sweep, Yankees manager Joe Torre and captain DerekJeter are not necessarily concerning themselves with thestandings.


"It's important that we got our record back to 16 games over(.500)," Torre said. "We look now to try to get to 20 over andhopefully we can carry this over. At this point it shouldn'tmatter who you're playing."


"We got to worry about playing everyday," Jeter said. "That'spretty much it. It's important because we need wins. I'd tellyou the same thing if we were playing a high school team. Weneed victories that's basically it, regardless of who we play.

The Yankees entered this series eight games out of first placein the East before slicing it down to five. Since fallingbehind by 14 1/2 games, the closest they have been to the RedSox has been four games, which is where New York was 11 daysago.


Wang (16-6) won that game on August 19, pitching six innings ina 9-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers. But on an 85-degreeafternoon, he was much sharper but seeing him finish the gamewas going to be a difficult decision due to a high pitch count.He finished with 103 pitches, including 63 for strikes.

"It was going to get tough for us at that time because of hispitch count," Yankees pitching coach Ron Guidry said. "You'rehoping that he still has a no-hitter going late in the gamebecause you're going to give him a shot.


"You almost have to give him a shot but you worry about him andyou worry about his pitch count. He's more important to this(team) here and if he continues to pitch for another 10 years hemight get one."


The 27-year-old righthander yielded just four walks through sixframes before finally seeing his no-hit bid end in aninteresting top of the seventh inning.


"No, I was just thinking don't give up any runs," Wang said whenasked of the no-hit bid.


Kevin Youkilis led off with a grounder to shortstop Derek Jeter,who shorthopped a throw to first base that forced first basemanJason Giambi off the bag. The play was ruled an error and the<div class="pre">no-hitter remained intact.</div>

Two pitches later, Wang's bid for the first Yankee no-hittersince David Cone's perfect game in 1999 ended as Mike Lowellextended his hitting streak to 12 games with a single to rightfield.


"Concentrate and go to the next batter," Wang said about losinghis chance for history.


After Lowell's base hit, the events at Yankee Stadium reallybecame interesting.


J.D. Drew hit a grounder to third baseman Alex Rodriguez, whoattempted to tag Youkilis before the Boston first baseman ranout of the baseline.


Rodriguez recovered to throw out Drew at first and, aftervoicing his displeasure about Youkilis' route to third, theumpires conferred before deciding to call Youkilis out.

"They did the right thing because it's all about perspective,"Torre said. Sometimes when the one who makes the call can't seethe angle and it shows (differently). The only thing I triedto appeal to them that Alex wasn't trying to make a token tag.He reached out and I think that showed he was trying to make aplay."


Youkilis stormed off the field and Boston manager Terry Franconaargued before being ejected by second base umpire DerrylCousins, whose initial call was overruled by third base umpireMark Carlson. After play resumed, Wang finished his outing bystriking out Jason Varitek.


"I wouldn't be able to give it to you word for word," Franconasaid. "What upset me was I thought Derryl Cousins, it was hiscall. So to get overturned by somebody who had not as good asview was frustrating."


"On the play, we had a little lack of communication," Cousinssaid. "I had a safe call for no tag. Carlson was making a callon out of the baseline. We just had to get together to makesure we had it right. Basically, I think Francona wanted to getrun there. He just persisted in the discussion long after itwas finished and we had explained the call."


It was the second straight game the Yankees flirted withhistory. On Wednesday, Roger Clemens took a no-hitter into thesixth before allowing a solo home run to David Ortiz.

In that contest, he got some unexpected defensive help fromGiambi and, in this one, Wang had some similar assistance.Giambi helped complete a 5-4-3 double play in the second inningand made a nice stop on Dustin Pedroia's groundout to end thethird.


It also was the second time this season that Wang took ano-hitter into the late innings. On May 5, he had a perfectgame in the eighth inning before allowing a solo home run toSeattle's Ben Broussard.


"He established all three pitches early," Francona said. "Hehad a fastball with good movement and velocity, a changeup, abreaking ball. If you looked at the scoreboard you could see wehad very little. He was tough from the first pitch (of thegame)."


The Yankees did not pound Curt Schilling (8-6), who allowed tworuns and six hits in seven innings. But two of those hits weresolo home runs by Cano, who hit an 85-mph fastball over theleft-center field fence in the third and a drilled a first-pitchsplitter to a similar spot in the fifth.


That was enough for Wang, who despite tying a season worst withfour walks, finished with five strikeouts and also recorded 10outs on the ground. Wang won his third straight start,improving to 15-3 in his last 21 starts and has won his lastthree outings vs. the Red Sox.


"Wang was terrific," Torre said. "The Red Sox have had prettygood luck with him but he was terrific."


Rookie reliever Joba Chamberlain worked around a hit by Pedroiain the eighth and the Yankees tacked on three runs in the bottomof the inning off Hideki Okajima.


Derek Jeter, who had four singles, scored on Bobby Abreu'sdouble. During Hideki Matsui's at-bat, Abreu and Rodriguezpulled off a double steal and scored when catcher JasonVaritek's throw to third skipped into left field.


Not allowing a run in his first 11 frames in the majors,Chamberlain was ejected by home plate umpire Angel Hernandez atthe start of the ninth when he unleashed two fastballs over thehead of Youkilis.


"It makes no sense and unfortunately in a lot of situations, theumpires do not apply common sense," Torre said. "We've seen ithappen too many times and something has to change."

"I'm new to the rivalry," Chamberlain said. "I want to send amessage but not that way."


Although the Yankees said there was no intent and Torre blastedthe umpires, Youkilis felt otherwise.


"That's the second time," Youkilis said. "Scott Proctor hit mein the head. Coincidence? I don't know.


"It doesn't look good. Two balls go at your head when you havea 0.00 ERA and you know the strike zone pretty good. You'regoing to go out there and think there's an intent to hit me inthe head."


It was the second time this season Youkilis was plunked in thelate innings. On June 1, Scott Proctor hit him in the ninthinning of a contest that saw five hitters get plunked bypitches.


Edwar Ramirez came on to seal the final three outs for New York,which record its first sweep of the Red Sox at home since June29-July 1, 2004.


The crushing sweep ended a 6-4 road trip for Boston, which willhost the Baltimore Orioles starting Friday.


The teams will conclude their season series with three games inBoston between September 14-16. Before that series the Yankeeswill face Seattle, Tampa Bay, Toronto and Kansas City while theRed Sox will take on Baltimore, Toronto and Tampa Bay.