Matsui, Burnett and Wang Help Blow Away Rangers

YANKEES 9

RANGERS 2

Yankees on the march! The Bombers have now won 12 of their last 15 games, to improve to 27-20, tying for first place in the AL East.

The key for the Yankees was its offense which produced 15 hits, 4 home runs and 9 runs against the Rangers on Wednesday night. Mark Teixeira once again delivered, this time a two run blast that cleared the wall in left field to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead. In the third, Derek Jeter lined a double down the left field line to bring in Kevin Cash to make it 3-0 Bombers.

A. J. Burnett bounced back from a mediocre outing against the Phillies last week, giving the Yankees six strong innings of three hit ball. Burnett struck out seven Rangers, surrendering only one hit combined between Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, and Josh Hamilton, the heart of the Rangers powerful lineup.

Hideki Matsui awoke from his slump, blasting a solo shot to right field to give the Yankees a 4-0 lead. Later in the seventh, Matsui went deep again, this one a two run bomb to right to give New York a 8-0 lead, all but placing the cap on this one. Box Score.

Big news tonight for the Yankees: Chein-Ming Wang pitched two no hit innings for the Yankees in the eighth and ninth innings. He struck out two Rangers and showed great movement on his pitches. He even reached as high as 92 MPH on the radar gun. With Wang's inspiring outing, talk will begin to heat up even more about moving Wang back into the rotation, and, possibly, moving Joba Chamberlain back into the bullpen.

Chamberlain is 2-1 with a 3.97 ERA as a starter this year and struggled on Tuesday night in a 7-3 loss to Texas. Only once this year has Chamberlain pitched longer than six innings, so it might be time to put him back in the pen where he was so successful in 2007. The fact that Phil Hughes has been pitching well lately adds to the complications that Yankee management is facing, but as the old saying goes, this is a good problem to have.