Chien-Ming Wang dominant in rehab assignment - 棒球

Chien-Ming Wang dominant in rehab assignment with Harrisburg Senators
Published: Thursday, July 07, 2011, 10:23 PM
Updated: Thursday, July 07, 2011, 10:31 PM
By ANDREW P. SHAY, The Patriot-News The Patriot-News

Senators in front of a franchise record crowd of 8,092. Of course fireworks
and the Independence Day holiday didn't hurt.

Fast forward to Thursday night when the third minor league rehab start for
Taiwanese right hander Chien-Ming Wang as a Washington National was the
feature attraction.

Wang, the former New York Yankees ace with the five-second pause at the
top of his delivery, was dominant.

“I felt very good tonight. It was all good,” said Wang, who worked four
scoreless innings surrendering only two hits last Saturday in Potomac.
“I feel more in control, and my velocity was good.”

The 31-year-old rehabbing a surgically repaired right shoulder did not
pitch at all in 2010 despite hopes he might return to the Nats late in
the season.

“It was really hard for me last season, and this year in spring training
was hard too,” Wang said. “I still did not feel well. So it feels good
to pitch this well again.”

Wang breezed through five innings, allowing only two hits and striking out
a pair.

And he never came close to walking a batter.

Only two of the 16 Erie batters he faced saw a two-ball count. Of course
the SeaWolves, who were swept following a 5-0 Harrisburg victory, are some
free swinging dogs.

“He looked comfortable for not pitching a game at this level in a while,”
Senators pitching coach Randy Tomlin said. “He knew what he wanted to do.”

Wang, who owns a 55-26 career major league record, threw only 43 pitches.
And 32 of those were strikes.

Four of Wang's five innings were done before he reached double digits on
the pitch-count chart. His high was 12 in the second frame.

There was a discussion between Tomlin,Wang and Senators manager Tony Beasley
in the bottom of the fifth about the 2006-07 Yankees ace possibly coming out
for another inning.

Wang wanted to take the mound again. Tomlin, though, had his marching orders
from the Nationals.

“He did (want to go back out). And that's a good sign, that he's feeling
good enough to go out there for the sixth,” Tomlin said. “But we were
sticking with the program. He did exactly what we wanted him to do.”

In addition to living in the strike zone all five of his innings, Wang also
featured his trademark sneaky fastball with good velocity to go along with
his slider and change-up.

And it took only 43 pitches to get through five innings. And Tomlin made sure
the regular starters in his stable were paying attention.

“Forty-three pitches in five innings?” Tomlin said. “Absolutely I wanted
our starting pitchers watching him throw strikes, and not just strikes but
quality strikes.”

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