Wang Spanked

It’s not good when Chien-Ming Wang’s ERA is closer to his age than his shoe size. After two starts in which he’s pitched a total of 4 and 2/3 innings, he’s sporting a bloated 28.93 ERA. Wang didn’t make it out of the second inning against the Tampa Bay Rays yesterday who went on to beat the Yankess 15-5. He and the Yankees are not starting the 2009 season the way they had envisioned. The silver lining? At least the Yanks are a game ahead of the Boston Red Sox who currently occupy last place.

Nobody is panicking yet since the season is only a week old. Their home opener at the new stadium is on Thursday against the Cleveland Indians. Let’s hope that the Yankees get themselves going in the right direction soon. Although I already know the secret to turning this team around – bring back David Cone and his Laredo slider. Hey, it is not such a crazy idea when you consider that Nick Swisher has the best ERA on the team after pitching the 8th inning against the Rays, giving up only 1 hit and no runs.

So what’s wrong with Chien-Ming Wang? Nothing according to him but then again, he’s not really a complainer. Wang says he feels fine and he doesn’t understand why his pitches are staying up. The rest of the team thinks that maybe he’s just a little rusty having not pitched since his injury put him on the shelf last season. I have a simple solution for that also – lube.

Whatever the case, Joe Girardi better hope Wang’s pitches look less like giant grapefruits for the other team to tee off on next time he pitches. Sure nobody is pushing the panic button yet, but it won’t be long before the whispers about job security start floating around. In this game, the manager is always first to go.