Wang Chien-ming's (
The 190cm right-hander from Tainan, who became the second Taiwan-born pitcher (after Tsao Chin-hui [
Wang retired the first 10 bat-ters he faced before surrendering a single in the bottom of the fourth to Orlando Hudson.
Up 3-0, the 25-year-old rookie allowed a pair of runs in the fifth when Eric Hinske led off the inning with a single and scored on Russ Adam's ground-ball out to first, two batters later.
Alex Rios would score on the ensuing play when Frank Catalanotto just beat out the throw to first for an infield single.
Accolades from his teammates filled the clubhouse following the game as the Yankees celebrated the win.
"He [Wang] made it look pretty easy," Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina said. "Maybe we're all trying too hard and we should just go out and do what he did. He looked pretty good."
Even A-Rod was pleased.
"He [Wang] was so poised out there, especially here at the Stadium," third baseman Alex Rodriguez said. "It was a nice lift, and hopefully it can bring some energy here for a while."
Wang left the game with a 3-2 lead after the seventh inning and saw fellow reliever Tom Gordon yielding a game-tying solo homer to Corey Koskie in the eighth to deny him the chance for the victory.
"It would be nice to have the win, but I'm not going to worry about it too much," Wang said during a video press conference with local reporters yesterday.
"There will be a next time," he said.
He gave himself a "B" for his first pitching performance in the majors, which included mostly his 150kph-plus fastball and a two-seamed sinker, along with a couple of splitters and sliders.
Wang came into the game well prepared.
"I was able to look at the tapes from Randy Johnson's game [on Friday] to get ready for this game," Wang said.
The Yankees' coaching staff gave Wang a 100-pitch limit without a preset number of innings to play.
He ended up throwing 81 pitches over seven frames with an impressive 54-27, strike-to-ball ratio.
Manager Joe Torre was pleased with his Taiwanese import, referring to Wang's performance as "the best start by a rookie for the Yankees since I took over as manager in 1996."
On hand to witness Wang's debut were his parents and wife Wu Jia-ling (
"Wang was great in my opinion," Wu told reporters during the video conference. "I'd give him a perfect score for what he did out there."
The Wang family will have more than a great memory of this special day to share when they return to Taiwan, because Wang Chien-ming was handed a gift from the Yankees' manager -- the starting lineup card for the game autographed by Joe Torre.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS