• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Yankees hope Wang finds groove against Indians

Apr 17, 2009 - 11:22 PM By Dan Pieringer Stats Writer

Cleveland (3-8) at NY Yankees (6-5), 3:40 p.m. EDT

BRONX, New York (AP) -- The setting was different, but the finish was very familiar for the New York Yankees.

After franchise legends Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera led them to their first win at their new ballpark, the Yankees look to ride the emotion of that victory as they continue a four-game series against the Cleveland Indians on Saturday.

New York (6-5) played its first nine games on the road before returning to the Bronx for the opening of the new $1.5 billion Yankee Stadium on Thursday. The Yankees dropped the inaugural game 10-2 to the Indians but rebounded with a 6-5 victory Friday.

Jeter and Rivera, who made their major-league debuts with the Yankees in 1995 and helped lead the club to four World Series titles and six AL pennants at old Yankee Stadium, played integral roles in the first win at the new venue.

Jeter broke a 5-all tie in the eighth inning with New York's fifth solo home run of the game, and Rivera closed out the victory with two strikeouts in the ninth.

"If anyone's going to hit a game-winning home run for the first win at the new stadium, it's going to be Derek," said first-year Yankee Mark Teixeira, who also homered despite a sore left wrist.

Now that they've gotten their first win in their new ballpark, the Yankees hope to get their first behind struggling right-hander Chien-Ming Wang (0-2, 28.93 ERA). Wang has been tagged for 15 runs in just 4 2-3 innings spanning his first two starts of 2009, and opponents are batting .600 against him.

New York has come to expect a lot more from Wang, a 19-game winner in both 2006 and 2007 before going 8-2 in 15 starts last season, when he missed the final 3 1/2 months with a foot injury.

"Whatever could go wrong tonight went wrong," manager Joe Girardi said after Wang gave up eight runs in one inning of a 15-5 loss at Tampa Bay on Monday. "It started with the starting pitcher. Chien-Ming never got it going. We know he's much better than he's pitched so far."

Wang is 3-2 with a 2.97 ERA in five career regular-season starts against the Indians, including 2-1 with a 2.57 ERA in three games in New York. However, he struggled against Cleveland in the 2007 playoffs, posting a 19.06 ERA and suffering two losses in the best-of-five divisional series.

The Indians (3-8) will turn to their own struggling starter Saturday as Fausto Carmona (0-2, 9.00) is in search of his first win in seven starts dating back to Sept. 2. The right-hander, who had a 5.44 ERA last year after going 19-8 with a 3.06 ERA in 2007, gave up four runs in five innings of a 4-2 defeat at Kansas City on Monday.

Carmona is 0-1 with a 4.22 ERA in six games - three starts - lifetime against the Yankees. Jeter is 4-for-9 with a walk in his career against him.

Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui is 3-for-5 lifetime against Carmona, but he might not be in the starting lineup Saturday because his surgically repaired left knee has filled with fluid. Matsui struck out as a pinch hitter Friday, and Girardi plans to be careful with the two-time All-Star.

"His knees are pretty beat up, and you don't know how they're going to react from day to day. Hopefully, it's just one day for him," Girardi said before Friday's game.