Chien-Ming Wang made his way towards the right-field bullpen at Nationals Park on Friday night for his pregame warm-ups, a routine he had gone through 109 previous times in his major league career.
But this walk was different. Hundreds of Nats fans, including dozens of fellow Taiwanese, cheered from the first-base stands as Wang passed. His countrymen waved signs and snapped photos of their hero, one of only six players from Taiwan to ever play Major League Baseball and by far the most successful.
But his glory days with the New York Yankees seem to belong to another person, part of another life. A catastrophic shoulder injury kept Wang away from the game for over two years. Even as recently as spring training he was still slinging the ball to home plate, a shadow of the pitcher who finished second in the Cy Young Award voting in 2006.
But Wang had already gone through one full season of rehabilitation at Washington’s spring-training complex in Viera, Fla. He was willing to put himself through another. This time something clicked. The velocity that once powered his dominating sinkerball climbed into the upper 80s, even topping 90 miles-per-hour at times. By late June, Wang was ready to test himself in minor-league games. Six starts and 28 2/3 innings may not have been ideal preparation time. But once he took that step towards playing in actual games, the Nats had 30 days to get Wang on the big-league roster or possibly lose their $3 million investment. It was now or never.
Wang’s return didn’t go exactly as planned against the New York Mets. He allowed six runs – only four of them earned thanks to a Danny Espinosa error — and eight hits in four innings on a steamy night in the District. Washington lost 8-5 and has now dropped six games in a row and 13 of 17 overall.
“In the first inning I was kind of excited. I was actually a little bit too happy,” Wang said through his interpreter. “I was a little bit out of control so the ball [didn’t] get down. That’s what happened in the first inning, but overall I felt fine.”
New York led 6-0 when Wang left after the fourth inning. The Mets added two more runs in the sixth on RBI doubles by Ronny Paulino and Jose Reyes. Trailing 8-3, Washington rallied in the eighth with five consecutive singles to make it 8-5. Wilson Ramos and Jesus Flores drove home those two runs. But New York reliever D.J. Carrasco struck out both Espinosa and Ryan Zimmerman to end the threat. Mets closer Jason Isringhausen retired the side in order in the ninth.
It would be easy to rationalize the loss. After all, just getting back on a big-league mound was a victory for the 31-year-old right-hander. But Wang didn’t see it that way. Results still matter at the big-league level and he didn’t want to revel too much in simply pitching. Wang tried to pace himself after that shaky start, concentrating on keeping his shoulder closed to the batter to gain better control of the ball. Easier said than done for someone who last appeared in the majors on July 4, 2009. Wang needed surgery to repair a torn capsule in his right shoulder after that game, an unceremonious end to his time with the Yankees.
“Everything was up in the zone,” said Nats catcher Wilson Ramos, who had only caught Wang once before during batting practice in spring training last March. “Hitters look for that … . After that inning he throw the ball down. He was better.”
Wang allowed just one batter to reach base in the second and third innings, a bloop hit by David Wright. But Espinosa’s error in the fourth put Mets runners at first and second with none out. Wang got away with a slap hit to right by Paulino when center fielder Rick Ankiel fired home in time to get Jason Bay trying to score. But a soft single up the middle by pitcher Dillon Gee scored a run anyway and a sacrifice fly by Reyes made it 6-0. Not the start he wanted, but there will be more this season. His comeback is only just beginning.
“I was excited for [Wang]. It’s been a long journey for him,” Zimmerman said. “To work your way back and work that hard for that long and finally to make it back shows you what kind of person he is, how hard he works and how he never quit.”
