Live updates on The Return of the Wang

Top 1: Wang expands the strike zone to get Kinsler looking on a 3-2 pitch. Good control there.
Gets Young to fly out weakly to center. Then strikes out Blalock! 1-2-3 go the Rangers. 13 pitches.

Bottom 1: Bizarre scene. Silly errors on both sides, with a dropped pop and a baserunning error. Damon's leadoff jack grabs the 1-0 lead.

T2: One pitch, one groundball out. Vintage Wang there. Sinker is working. A little wild to Murphy, falls behind 2-0. He's taking his time. Skips another one in front of the plate, 3-0. This is tenuous. Throws a strike then gets a weak ground ball, fields it himself and gets the out!
Byrd up, swinging strikeout!!!! 6 up 6 down for Wang! Tiger Wang!

B2: Yankees go quietly.

T3: Wang gets ahead of Davis. Two weak swings and foul balls. Wang has good control of the hitters and the situation. Davis looks clueless against him. Oh and he manages to rope a line drive ground-rule double down the line on the third 0-2 pitch. Bad luck there. Teagarden bunts Davis over to third, 1 out and Andrus up. First pitch, weak ground ball to Arod, who checks the runner and throws to first, 2 out!!! Almost out of the jam now. Here's Kinsler taking the first pitch for a ball. Wang delivers low, falling behind 2-0 to Kinsler. This is the second time through the order for Texas, so they should be making adjustments. Nice pitch, Kinsler fouls it away. Wang is rubbing the ball, looking focused, expressionless. Ball 3, 3-1. Wang moves like Mariano, no wasted movement. Great sinker, Kinsler fouls it off, full count. Cervelli comes out to talk, it's a short conversation and he trots back. Wild pitch! Bounced in front of the plate (third time today) the run scores, Cervelli dashes to the backstop but too late. 1-1 game now. I wonder if Cervelli bothered Wang by coming to talk to him before that pitch. Now a weak ground ball and A-Rod botches it! He throws to second but can't get Kinsler, he had an easy play at first! Oh no...1st and 2nd 2 outs, Blalock up. Wang needs a big out here. 1-1 count. Looking distracted now, bounces one to Cervelli. Now a weak single over A-Rod's head, Kinsler scores from 2nd, 2-1 game. This is getting scary now. Wang needs a big out right now. Here's Cruz. He's making them protect the plate. Wang has good stuff today, no question, but he seems to lose control of it from time to time, bouncing balls to the plate. Another good sinker, 1-2 count. The clapping starts, the crowd is hoping for the strikeout. STRIKE THREE! Got him looking. Well they gave up the lead but it didn't have to be that way. 2 hits, a walk, a run on a wild pitch and a poor play in the field by Arod makes it 2-1. 45 pitches now.

B3: Damon almost homers again, but this time its caught with a leaping grab at the wall in right, next to the scoreboard. Yanks down 1-2-3 again.

T4: Texas has seen Wang once through the lineup, and the second time they were able to lay off some of the low balls and find better pitches to hit. I'd also recommend that Cervelli not speak to Wang again, I think it annoys him.
(NY Smokers quitline quiz: Who has managed both teams? Showalter and...Torre?)

Single to left, then another double to left on what looked like a foul ball. Wang is struggling now, pitching poorly. And another double scores 2 runs, Texas leads 4-1. 55 pitches. Swinging strikeout, 1 out man on 2nd. Sometimes it seems that when something goes wrong Wang loses his concentration a little. Aceves is warming in the pen, they might see something wrong with his mechanics. Now a lazy ground ball to Cano, 2 gone. Runner on third, 1 pitch, another grounder to Cano retires the Rangers. But Wang gave up 3 consecutive hits to start the inning, the last two for extra bases.
The second time through the lineup, the Rangers seem to be swinging very early in the count, anticipating strikes. So they make Wang look really good by falling behind or grounding out. And sometimes they make him look really bad, by getting good wood on the ball and hitting line drives for hits. Wang seemed to calm down and pitch well after the third hit. Hopefully they'll leave him in the game to see how he responds. After all, he has only thrown 59 pitches. 6 hits 4 runs 1 walk 5 strikeouts after 4 innings.

B4: Tex doubles but Arod makes himself useless again, grounding out to short. Cano does the same, and after a walk to Matsui, Melky grounds out to the pitcher.

T5: Wang is back out there. Young is up. He falls behind, but gets a strike. Now behind 3-1 and pitches aren't looking good. Grounded to A-Rod, 1 out! Great sinker there, his pitches are so deceptive. First pitch to Blalock and another ground ball to A-Rod! 2 gone. Cruz now, 1-1 count. And Cruz hits a long home run, no doubt about that one. 5-1 Texas now in the 5th, and Girardi comes out to tell Mr. Wang that his day is over.

Well...that wasn't so great. 4.2 innings pitched, 7 hits, 5 runs, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts, 70 pitches. It was not a total disaster like last time, though. The Yankees probably assume that Wang will get better from here. There's no doubt he'll have at least a few more starts to get back into the swing of things and get his control back, which seemed to be a little bit lacking today. He did get 5 strikeouts and plenty of ground balls, and he had Texas swinging at pitches out of the strike zone early in the count, a great sign. Honestly, there's no reason to think that Wang isn't back in form. Texas is a very good hitting team, and they're going to get their runs against a lot of pitchers.

All in all, it was not the start we wanted from Wang. But he did not pitch badly. I think he'll be out there again in 5 days, against the Red Sox in Fenway park on Tuesday night. And even if he gets hit in that game, he'll be back again, probably for the last game against the Mets.

That's all for the Wang report. Kind of disappointing, but not a disaster.

(The quiz answer was Showalter and Martin, which was my shot-in-the-dark guess after Torre. Whatever!)

Edit: And now here's the video.