Making it three in a row, Taiwan's very own Wang Chien-ming (
The 25-year-old native of Tainan was spectacular in his fifth start as a big leaguer by allowing two runs on five hits while striking out two and walking none. It was not until Wang had retired the first nine batters he faced that the Tigers rang up their first hit off him on a leadoff single by Brandon Inge in the fourth inning.
Even in situations where the odds were against him, Wang showed great poise by sticking with his game plan against each hitter and restricting the damage to a minimum.
He got himself out of a couple of jams by getting Detroit to hit into two double plays, one in the fourth that ended a one-out, with runners on first and second and the other in the sixth, also with one out and runners at the corners.
"He [Wang] looks like a veteran," fellow catcher Jorge Posada was quoted in an article on the Major League Web site. "He doesn't get rattled, he doesn't get out of his game plan, and he is in control."
The Yankee lineup also helped their rookie starter by scoring three runs in the sixth on an RBI double by third baseman Alex "A-Rod" Rodriguez and Posada's two-run single to left that turned the one-all tie into a 4-1 advantage.
Another run was charged to Wang after he was replaced one out into the seventh when Yankees reliever Mike Stanton gave up a single to Ramon Martinez to score the runner on third.
But it did not matter much for Wang, because that was as close as the Tigers would get with the New York relievers shutting out the Tigers the rest of the way.
Wang left the game to an ovation by the 51,000-plus fans on hand, cheering their new-found hero in the Big Apple.
He tipped his hat as he walked off the field looking down, showing not much emotion at all, because Wang is exactly the type of pitcher that prefers to let his pitching do the talking.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79