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Abreu powers Yankees past Diamondbacks

Jun 13, 2007 - 5:44 AM BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- It did not take long for the red-hot Bobby Abreu to turn a pitchers' duel in the favor of the New York Yankees.

Abreu hit a three-run homer in the first and Chien-Ming Wang tossed seven strong innings as the Yankees posted a 4-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday.

A solid pitching matchup was expected between Brandon Webb (6-4) - the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner - and Wang (6-4), who finished second for the honor in the American League last season.

The streaking Yankees - winners of seven straight - jumped ahead early after Johnny Damon reached on an error to start the first and Derek Jeter singled. Abreu took a strike and then crushed an 0-1 pitch from Webb over the right field fence to extend his hitting streak to a season-high 11 games.

"It was sinker and it came back to the middle of the plate and I hit good, hit a homer and we win," Abreu said. "That's what it's all about."

"I made one mistake to Abreu and that was pretty much the game," Webb said. "It was a decent pitch, it was where we wanted it."

It was the fourth homer of the season for Abreu, who reached base in nine straight plate appearances after the three-run blast. He is batting .488 (20-for-41) with two homers and 12 RBI in 11 games in June.

"I feel good, I'm seeing the ball very well all the way through home plate," Abreu said. "I'm making very good contact, taking pitches and getting on base. When you feel good, you have confidence in yourself to get on base and you have your mind set every time you come up."

After working around a pair of hits in a 22-pitch first inning, Wang needed just 73 pitches to get through the next six. He surrendered just six hits overall, including a solo homer to Chad Tracy with one out in the fourth.

"Wang always gives you a chance to win," New York manager Joe Torre said. "He battles and he gave up one run in seven inning. He had a couple of balls hit hard off him but he just keeps fighting."

"He's outstanding, very similar to Webb," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. "You know what's coming and you can't do much with it."

Wang struck out two and did not walk a batter en route to his fifth win in six starts. He allowed singles to two of the first three batters he faced but escaped the first unscathed. Wang was cruising until Tracy homered into right field seats for his second home run of the season and first since April 10.

It was the first home run allowed by Wang since May 6 against Seattle, but it hardly mattered. Arizona got the tying run on base in the seventh, but Jeter made a leaping catch of Chris Young's liner to end the inning.

Kyle Farnsworth tossed a scoreless eighth and Mariano Rivera fired a perfect ninth for his eighth save in 10 chances as the Yankees extended their longest winning streak of the season.

The Yankees have won 10 of their last 12 games overall and climbed back to .500 (31-31) for the first time since they were 16-16 on May 9.

"We know we have a good team," Jeter said. "We were scuffling a bit early on but we're playing a lot better now. If we continue like this, we like our chances regardless of who we are playing."

Arizona has lost four of its last five overall after winning 11 of 12. The Diamondbacks have dropped 19 of their last 26 against the American League, including three of four this season.

Webb retired 16 of the next 20 batters following Abreu's homer and yielded four runs and five hits over seven frames. He had won his previous three starts, yielding just two earned runs in 22 innings.

"We didn't wear him out by any stretch of the imagination," Torre said. "He gave up a home run but he didn't give us anything the rest of the way, really. We were pretty fortunate to have that (early lead) hold up."

The Yankees added their final run in the bottom half of the seventh after Melky Cabrera hit into a double play to score Hideki Matsui.