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Wang, Yankees hold down White Sox, split doubleheader

May 17, 2007 - 6:20 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Chien-Ming Wang bounced back in a major way to help the struggling New York Yankees earn a split.

Wang pitched seven outstanding innings and Hideki Matsui had three hits and drove in four as the Yankees defeated the Chicago White Sox, 8-1, in the second game of a day-night doubleheader on Wednesday.

Bobby Abreu and Derek Jeter each drove in a run and Melky Cabrera and Jorge Posada added solo homers in the ninth for New York, which lost the first game, 5-3, and had to wait 74 minutes for the start of this one because of a rain delay.

The twin bill was necessary after rain postponed the opener of the three-game series on Tuesday.

Wang (2-3) yielded a run, six hits and a walk while striking out three for the Yankees, who had lost four of five.

"It was all about Wang today," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "We've had pretty good pitching, we just haven't been able to mount any kind of offense. Hopefully, this starts something because we're certainly capable."

The righthander was coming off his worst performance of the season, when he allowed a season-high seven runs and 11 hits in 6 1/3 innings in a 14-2 loss to the Texas Rangers last Thursday.

"I've been working in the bullpen, trying for a smooth delivery," Wang said. "It helped (improve) my sinker."

"When he's throwing the ball down, his sinker's real effective," Yankees catcher Wil Nieves added. "He was down today and was real fun to catch."

It was Wang's first career decision vs. the White Sox. He faced them once last year, yielding four runs and seven hits in five innings in a 6-5, 11-inning loss on August 8.

Reliever Kyle Farnsworth worked around a one-out walk in the eighth inning and Mariano Rivera allowed a one-out single in the ninth to close out the game.

With one out in the third inning, Jeter reached first base on a fielding error by shortstop Juan Uribe. After Jason Giambi walked and Alex Rodriguez lined out to third, Matsui hammered a double to the right-center field wall off Jose Contreras, plating both runners and giving New York a 2-0 lead.

The White Sox cut the deficit in the sixth inning. Darin Erstad led off with a single to center field and Pablo Ozuna was hit by Wang. Two outs later, Rob Mackowiak hit a single to center field to score Erstad, but Ozuna was caught in a rundown between second and third base to end the threat.

"I'm behind my players 100 percent," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said of Ozuna's attempt to take third on Mackowiak's single.

With the Yankees leading, 2-1, in the seventh, Cabrera walked and moved to second on a sacrifice by Doug Mientkiewicz. One out later, Abreu hit a single to center field to plate Cabrera for a 3-1 lead. It was Abreu's first hit after striking out his three previous at-bats.

"Bobby did a great job of getting that hit there," Jeter said. "He had struggled with Contreras early on, but then he got that single. It was a big hit for him, but it was even bigger for us."

Jeter then followed with a blast off the center field wall, scoring Abreu and increasing New York's lead to three.

The triple ended the night for Contreras, who allowed four runs - two earned - and five hits to fall to 3-4 this season. The righthander walked three and struck out six to drop to 2-2 lifetime against his former team.

"Contreras is tough workhorse," Jeter said. "It seems like he gets better every year. He's tough, and he showed that today."

Cabrera led off the ninth with his second homer of the season off White Sox reliever Andrew Sisco. One out later, Posada homered over the center field wall to increase the lead to 6-1.

Sisco loaded the bases before Matsui hit a single to drive in two more, giving New York an 8-1 advantage.