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Chien-Ming Wang delivers strong outing, but Yanks can't make up for pitcher's few mistakes.

The next inning it would be Cabrera again to deliver the game-breaking blow - a clean two-run single to left-center, culminating a rally that had begun with Juan Rivera beating out a leadoff Baltimore chop to short and Steve Finley reaching on a bunt in front of the plate that was thrown wide by Wang.

In all, Wang made only three mistake pitches - Cabrera's hit, Rivera's full-count, leadoff homer in the fifth and Bengie Molina's RBI single in the sixth - but with the Yankees equally stifled by a quartet of Angel righthanders, that was three too many.

According to Joe Torre, there were a couple of reasons for choosing Wang to start on the road. The Taiwanese righty's unflappable demeanor was a primary factor, as was the Angels' unfamiliarity with his funky hesitation delivery. More important than anything, however, was Torre's and Mel Stottlemyre's belief that Wang had re-established himself as the quality starter he'd been the first half of the season, after he was summoned from Columbus in late April to replace injured Jaret Wright.

Wang was 6-3 with a 3.89 ERA at the All-Star break, and as Stottlemyre acknowledged, "really saved us" given the battered and banged-up state of the rotation. That's why when, right after the All-Star break, he suddenly complained of a sore shoulder, it was as if the Yankee season was once again lost.

"Looking back on it now," said Stottlemyre, "it would not surprise me in the least if he merely slept on it the wrong way and what the MRI turned up was what would show up on any pitcher's shoulder. He's clearly fine now and in his last couple of starts pitched like he had the first half."

Of course, it is a lot more than just being seemingly impervious to pressure that brought Wang to his postseason moment last night. In the two years since the Yanks first saw Wang the spring of '03, his velocity increased and he perfected a sinker to the point where he's drawn comparisons to the most notable Yankee sinkerballer of the last 30 years - Stottlemyre himself.

In his last three starts of the season, he had a total of just four fly ball outs and last night he got 14 ground ball outs. What should have been his 15th was his errant throw of the Finley bunt. Otherwise, the combination of his sinker and his calm under pressure served him well in his postseason debut.

Undeterred by Robinson Cano's two-out error in the second that put Angels at first and third, Wang retired Finley on a grounder to second. And in the fifth, he shrugged off Rivera's leadoff homer by retiring the next three Angels on groundouts.

"The sinkerball is what's made him," Stottlemyre said, "that and the added velocity. Early on this spring, I'd kid him by telling him 'your middle name is not Ming, it's Down. It's Chien-DOWN Wang, don't forget that' and he'd smile and nod. That's why I say he's aware of a lot more than he lets on."

Another example of that was when, in the first half of the season, Wang decided he wanted to more closely imitate his idol, Hideo Nomo, and altered his windup by lifting his arms higher over his head, as was the style of the erstwhile Japanese pitching prodigy whose career has since flamed out.

"I said to him: 'What do you want to do, wind up where he is?'" Stottlemyre said in reference to the fact that Nomo, after being released by the last-place, pitching-desperate Tampa Bay Devil Rays, was toiling for the Yankees' Triple-A farm team in Columbus. "He gave me a knowing smile and that was the end of the high-arm windup."

Stottlemyre does not say if he sees a lot of himself in Wang, but there is clearly a special bond between the teacher and pupil - to the point where, on Tuesday, Stottlemyre was concerned at how Wang would handle his first postseason press conference.

"When he came back, I asked him how it went and what he said," Stottlemyre related. "He said he just thanked all his friends and the 23 million people in Taiwan."

Left unsaid was the thanks Stottlemyre, Torre and the millions of Yankee legions had for him. He lost his first playoff start last night, but everyone around him knew that, without him, none of them would have been here in the first place.

Originally published on October 6, 2005