Chien-Ming Wang shines as Washington Nationals defeat Chicago Cubs 3-1 – MLB Update
Chien-Ming Wang threw six innings on Tuesday, August 9 and allowed only a hit to help the Washington Nationals beat the Chicago Cubs 3-1 at Wrigley Field.
Wang stirred tremendous excitement with his unplayable innings to win after rain led to postponement of the last game.
He was playing the game after having missed the two valuable years of his career due to a shoulder injury. This was his first win since June 2009 where Wang – representing the New York Yankees, beat the New York Mets.
For Wang, last two outings were a bit disappointing."The last two outings, my sinker wasn't that good, so the ball wasn't getting down. That's why they got me," Wang said through an interpreter. "In the bullpen session, I was working on the release point.
I think that's why I had a good outing today."
The most thrilled of all was the Nationals’ manager, Davey Johnson. The fact that Wang went for 80 pitches in the six innings was in itself something remarkable.
"I was impressed the first time because I didn't think I'd see him with that free of a delivery and be able to hang in there for as long as he did,” Johnson said. "It was very impressive. Eighty pitches for six innings? That's vintage."
After Matt Garza threw the first inning as a scoreless one, Chien-Ming Wang came with his high-quality pitches, virtually rendering the Cubs’ hitters unable to play the pitches he tossed, keeping the game level by the end of the first inning.
Matt Garza proved no less ferocious rival on Tuesday with his equally effective pitches. While Wang was going all well against the Cubs’ hitters, Garza held the Nationals’ hitters back from scoring.
But the Nationals’ hitters put an end to the run drought in the sixth inning when Garza came on the mound with scores standing at nil. Michael Morse homered to give a 1-0 lead to the Nationals.
Soon after that Jonny Gomes scored a two-run homer to triple the lead for the Nationals, clearly putting the team on the edge and causing turmoil for the Cubs’ defence at a very crucial stage.
Wang capitalised on this opportunity and threw stronger and gave up only a hit in the six innings that he pitched. Burnett who relieved Wang had a seventh inning shut-out, while Tyler Clippard gave up a run to Starlin Castro who homered to bring down to
the lead to 3-1 for the Cubs.
But Drew Storen established another evidence of his tremendous skill as a closer and tossed a scoreless inning to win the game 3-1 for the Washington Nationals.
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