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April 11, 2008
By Joe McDonald
Journal Sports Writer
BOSTON _ On a night when most of the focus was on Red Sox starter Clay Buchholz, Yankees pitcher Chien-Ming Wang was outstanding.
He recorded a complete-game two-hitter to lead New York to a 4-1 victory at Fenway Park. The right-hander improves to 3-0 on the season and needed only 93 pitches to finish the job. The Sox' J.D. Drew hit a solo homer in the fifth inning and Coco Crisp dropped down a bunt single in the ninth for Boston's only two hits.
"Coming into the game we certainly wanted to stay in the middle of the field," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. "We wanted to try to get him to elevate. If you look at the end of the game and you see fly balls, you would think the results might be different. We went through a period in the middle of the game where we squared up four or five and we had nothing to show for it. We didn't get anything started. (Wang) rarely pitched out of the stretch. In a game that tight (1-1) we never got anything going."
Buchholz, on the other hand, was also solid in his first meeting against the Yankees.
"He did great," said Francona. "He really did. he competed and threw all of his pitches. He threw his fastball with conviction. He threw some great offspeed pitches and got himself out of that one jam. He got us to a point in the game where we had a chance, even if we weren't scoring we had a chance to win that game."
He worked six innings and allowed just one run on four hits with three walks and three strikeouts.
“I think this a step you want to take,” he said about facing the Yankees for the first time. “I don’t know if it’s one that I had to take, but at the same time this is what you dream about when you dream about pitching in the big rivalries when you’re growing up. It was something I wanted to do, and they gave me a shot to do it tonight. I felt good overall, but they had a bit better night than we did. You have to tip your cap sometimes.”
Even though it was the Yankees, Buchholz said he wanted to treat it as just another game.
“I try to go in as a regular start,” he said. “I’ve found out in the past that if you go in and try to do too much then that’s the outcome. I did that a couple of time tonight where I felt like I had to throw the ball harder or make a breaking ball break harder and they ended up being outside the zone. When I was calm and let the ball go out of my hand it worked out a whole lot better for me.”
The last time he started at Fenway Park he recorded a no-hitter against the Orioles last Sept. 1. That feat really wasn’t on his mind last night because it’s an entirely different season.
“Somebody brought it up [yesterday],” he said. “My comment was ‘it was last year and I need to forget about it.’ It might not ever happen again. At the same time this was a good step in the right direction as far as pitching out of trouble and learning a few new hitters.”
Posted by Joe McDonald 
at 10:35 PM | Permalink
