Wang's back is OK, he'll be back on mound Sunday
Chien-Ming Wang was the source of a lot of worry in the eighth inning last night when his back stiffened during the Yankees' seven-run rally. But he deemed himself healthy today. "Heating pad," he said when he was asked what kind of treatment he underwent last night.
He is so well, in fact, that Joe Torre named him to start Sunday in Kansas City, in Roger Clemens' place. Clemens had a cortisone shot in his elbow in Houston today and is likely to rejoin the team in Toronto next week. Mike Mussina, who was penciled in as the starter Sunday, probably will pitch one game in that series. But for now, the spot that Mussina was going to take will go to Wang instead.
The feeling is that, with the off day tomorrow, Wang can go on his regular four days of rest. Torre mentioned that Wang had a low pitch couint (86) last night and that a sinkerball pitcher usually does not benefit from extra rest (he would have pitched Tuesday in the original plan, what with two off days). The stronger the pitcher feels, the more his sinker rises. "The last thing we need is to have him too strong," Torre said
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Comments (1)
Smart move pitching Wang against KC instead of the artifical turf of Toronto, where ground balls rocket thru the infield.
I suspected Vizcaino was being overused after seeing how many hard hit balls he had given up in his few outings, after he had been lights out for so long. I wish Joe wouldn't keep wearing out his only effective early relief guys. It is a LONG season & he has always made unreasonable demands on them which always leads to their ultimate decline.