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Wang, Rodriguez lift Yankees to important win

Sep 5, 2007 - 4:04 AM BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- Chien-Ming Wang, Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees put it all together in an important game on Tuesday night.

Wang joined Boston's Josh Beckett as baseball's first 17-game winners and Alex Rodriguez blasted his major league-leading 46th homer as the Yankees pounded the Seattle Mariners, 12-3, in a battle of the top two clubs in the American League wild card race.

Robinson Cano had four hits and three RBI and Jorge Posada smashed two homers for New York (77-62), which leads Seattle (74-63) by two games in the wild card standings. The teams play the finale of their crucial three-game set on Wednesday.

"Hopefully, we can turn it into something," Yankees manager Joe Torre said.

"We're two out," Mariners manager John McLaren said. "All we need to do is just get that streak that we're looking for."

After a rousing sweep of the rival Boston Red Sox last week, the Yankees lost two of three to the last-place Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the opener against the Mariners, who snapped a nine-game losing streak with the victory.

New York also got hit by the injury bug on Monday. First baseman Andy Phillips went down for the season with a broken wrist and righthander Roger Clemens left his start with right elbow pain.

Clemens, who may not miss a start, may receive a cortisone shot on Wednesday.

"In his mind, he's probably thinking that he can pitch his next go-around," Torre said. "We're not going to do that. We're happy that the MRI showed no structural problems.

"It's irritation, which is not a surprise. He's going to go to Houston and see a doctor down there that he's used to seeing. There's a chance he'll get a (cortisone) shot but that doctor will make that decision."

But it was Wang (17-6) who gave the Yankees a shot in the arm in this one.

"Wang is tough," McLaren said. "It seemed like every out was a ground ball."

It was an impressive outing for the righthander, who allowed just one run and five hits while striking out one and walking three in 7 1/3 frames to pick up his sixth win in six career starts vs. Seattle.

Wang left the game in the eighth after throwing 84 pitches. After retiring Jeremy Reed on a grounder to second, pitching coach Ron Guidry and manager Joe Torre each made a trip to the mound before pulling the righthander, who has had blister problems in the past.

"His back got stiff on him," Torre said. "You can see after he threw the first couple of pitches it just looked like he didn't bend his back. It's not an issue."

"I couldn't get loose," Wang said. "I'm not too worried about it."

Luis Vizcaino got an out in the eighth before Chris Britton pitched the final 1 1/3 innings.

The Yankees started the scoring in the second on Posada's solo homer off Mariners starter Horacio Ramirez (8-5).

"It's pretty remarkable," Torre said. "A catcher in this day and age to go out there and have those offensive numbers. Jorge has been right there all year long."

New York added three more runs in the sixth, highlighted by Rodriguez, who blasted a majestic one-out homer into the left field upper deck to make it 2-0.

"It doesn't matter where it lands," Rodriguez said. "It only counts for one run."

Posada then was issued a walk and Hideki Matsui reached on catcher's interference, sending Posada - who was running on the pitch - to third. After rookie Shelley Duncan struck out, Cano ripped an RBI single to give the Yankees a three-run advantage.

Wilson Betemit added a run-scoring single of his own to cap the scoring in the frame. New York then added seven runs in the seventh to put the game out of reach. The outburst was keyed by Bobby Abreu's solo homer, Duncan's two-run single, Cano's two-run double and RBI singles by Melky Cabrera and Derek Jeter.

The Yankees received a scare in the seventh when Rodriguez slid into third base and had the Mariners' Adrian Beltre land on his ankle. But the slugger remained in the game.

"It's a little sore right now," Rodriguez said. "I'm going to see how I feel in the morning. It was more of a scare than anything."

Ramirez yielded four runs and nine hits in 5 2/3 innings while striking out three and walking one. Beltre smacked his 22nd homer of the season for the Mariners, who have lost 10 of their last 11 games.