The LoHud Yankees Blog

Chien-Ming Wang showed improvement last night but the Yankees fell to the woeful Nationals.

Derek Jeter missed the game with a sore ankle. But the MRI was negative. This notebook also has updates on a slumping Alex Rodriguez, a recovering Xavier Nady and an candid Brian Cashman.

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Lots of people e-mailing about A-Rod either ripping him for walking (really?) with Brett Gardner on third base and/or not stealing second base.

I can’t see how you criticize a player for taking a walk. So swinging at a bad pitch would be preferable? As for him stealing second base, Alex was on his own there as apparently Girardi did not order him to go.

The guy had just played nine innings in the field and had made, as I recall, at least two dives at third base. Maybe his right hip didn’t feel up to stealing. Alex is a high-percentage base stealer (he has been caught seven times in the last three seasons in 51 attempts), so apparently he didn’t feel he would make it.

Cano had a good at-bat and he hit the ball hard, just right at the shortstop.

Joe Girardi said he wanted to watch the tape first before taking any decisions. But he also said that it’s “safe to say” Chien-Ming Wang will stay in the rotation.

The Nationals got five outs in the fifth inning thanks to the blown call at first base and the dropped throw by Ramiro Pena.

“That was the old Wang,” Jorge Posada said. “Everything I saw was positive. He gave us a chance to win that game.”

Wang reported that his wife and newborn son are doing well. “The baby is cute,” Wang said. “He looks like me.” CMW was in the delivery room for the birth and cut the cord.

It’s a hideous loss for the Yankees against the worst team in baseball. But if it helps lead to Wang returning to form, the night won’t be a total loss.

YANKEES (37-27)
Damon LF
Swisher RF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Cano 2B
Posada C
Matsui DH
Cabrera CF
Pena SS

Pitching: RHP Chien-Ming Wang (0-4, 14.34).

NATIONALS (16-46)
Guzman SS
Johnson 1B
Zimmerman 3B
Dunn DH
Dukes RF
Patterson CF
Bard C
Harris LF
Hernandez 2B

Pitching: LHP John Lannan (3-5, 3.51).

TIME/TV: 7:05 p.m., YES.

WHO’S YOUR DADDY: Chien-Ming Wang is 0-4 with a 14.34 ERA this season. As a starter, he has a 21.60 ERA, allowing 32 runs on 36 hits and 10 walks 13.1 innings. Wang lasted only 2.2 innings against Boston on June 10. He will be pitching tonight on six days of rest and a day after the birth of his son, Justin.

WANG LIKES THE NL: CMW has a 3.75 ERA in 11 interleague games in his career.

WANG VS. WASHINGTON: The Wanger faced the Nats once and it was a heartbreaker. He fell 3-2 on June 18, 2006 at RFK Stadium when Zimmerman hit a walk-off two-run homer. The Yankees led 2-1 going into the ninth inning.

HE’S DUE: Wang’s last win was June 15, 2008. He held Houston scoreless for five innings then suffered the foot injury that ended his season.

LOCAL BOY MAKES GOOD: Lannan is from Long Beach, N.Y., and attended Siena College after starring for Chaminade High. The 24-year-old has pitched for the Nats this season, allowing 78 hits over 77 innings. He has given up one earned run on nine hits in his last 15 innings.

ASSORTED STUFF: The Yankees have won three of four and 22 of their last 32. … They have won 15 of their last 20 at home. … They are 4-3 in interleague games. … The Yankees have come from behind to win 22 of their 37 games.

JUNE SWOON: Alex Rodriguez is 8 of 48 (.167) this month. He has three RBI in his last nine games.

MO RIGHT AT HOME: Mariano Rivera has converted 32 consecutive save chances at home. His last blown save in the Bronx came on Aug. 13, 2007.

DONTCHA KNOW: Robinson Cano is 9 of his last 16 with five runs scored, six RBI and five extra-base hits on his last four games.

COKE’S THE MAN: Phil Coke’s last six appearances: 5.2 2 0 0 2 4.

HISTORY IN THE MAKING: The Yankees did not hit a home run last night. The only other home game that happened came on May 6 against Tampa. They have hit at least one homer in the other 31 home games.

BRUISER BRUNEY: The Yankees are 10-1 in the games Brian Bruney has appeared in.

Back with much more later on.

UPDATE, 4:01 p.m.: Jeter sent for MRI. He wanted to play tonight, however.

UPDATE, 4:27 p.m.: MRI was negative.

UPDATE, 5:16 p.m.: We just spoke to Jeter, who said he wanted to play but admitted he had some difficulty running last night. He hopes to be able to play tomorrow and will be receiving treatment.

Meanwhile, the entire minicamp roster of the New York football Giants are in the house. They’re in the Legends Suite at the moment, chowing down. This is a team bonding activity organized by coach Tom Coughlin. He and Joe Girardi have become pals. Girardi, as you may recall, took a page out of Coughlin’s book when he canceled practice in spring training in favor of taking the team to a pool hall.

According to an eyewitness, the Giants “destroyed” the buffet in the Legends Suite.

Xavier Nady is headed for Tampa tomorrow and the plan is for him to play four innings in right field on Friday. He has not let a throw go yet but believes his elbow is at 85-90 percent.

UPDATE, 5:34 p.m.: This is hilarious. Brian Cashman is holding a press conference for Spanish-speaking reporters and it’s being broadcast to the press box. He is giving answers through a translator.

Apparently C-Money took some truth serum before he sat down. He has so far said:

• Damaso Marte may need surgery on his shoulder to figure out what his wrong.

• Brian Bruney “lied” to him about his elbow. “It drives me nuts,” Cashman said. Cashman said he went to Scranton to see Bruney’s rehab the first time around. “It was a waste of a two-and-half-hour drive,” he said. He compared injured players to pets because they can’t or won’t tell you what is wrong.

• Cashman said the team is better with Cabrera in center and Swisher in right. Not with Brett Gardner in the lineup.

UPDATE, 7:10 p.m.: We’re underway. Suddenly it’s 63 degrees and getting colder. New baby and new haircut for Wang. New results, too? We’ll see.

UPDATE, 7:25 p.m.: Alex is now 2 for 15 on the homestand.

UPDATE, 7:36 p.m.: As far as little J.J. Wang knows, his pop is still the man. Wang has had some control issues but managed to get through two innings unscathed.

UPDATE, 7:51 p.m.: The crowd is really behind Wang, cheering with two strikes and trying to will him to a solid outing. So far, so good. He has thrown three scoreless innings, allowing one hit.

UPDATE, 8:04 p.m.: Guess Adam Dunn doesn’t take on 3-0. That ball was crushed.

UPDATE, 8:05 p.m.: The whole thing about throwing back a home run hit by the opposing team is silly and the Yankees should eject anybody who does it. It’s a matter of time before some drunk pegs an outfielder in the back of the head

Beyond that, it’s just copied from Wrigley Field. Give the ball to a kid, which is what happens anyway when they retrieve the ball.

UPDATE, 8:10 p.m.: The bad news is the Yankees trail 1-0 and John Lannan looks great. The good news is that the Wanger has his longest outing of the season.

UPDATE, 8:17 p.m.: Yankees have been no-hit by John Lannan for four innings and have managed to get the ball out of the infield twice. Is that bad? Because it seems bad.

UPDATE, 8:23 p.m.: Wang in some trouble here. Nats have runners on the corners and one out. Be a good time for Nick Johnson to GIDP.

Phil Hughes warming up.

UPDATE, 8:26 p.m.: Funny how it work sometimes. Harris was nearly out stealing second but the low throw got away from Ramiro Pena. Then Guzman is safe at first on a bang-bang play. That could have been the third out.

Instead Johnson triples and now the Nats leads 3-0. It would have been 2-0 except Melky made a rockhead play by diving for the ball. He does some bad things in the outfield sometimes.

UPDATE, 8:32 p.m.: Wang is likely finished for the night. His line: 5 6 3 3 2 5. Of the 15 outs he recorded, 10 were on the ground. He had control issues but he was pitching on six days of rest.

Given the improvement, I’d be surprised if they dropped him from the rotation. He gave up three runs and it easily could have been one or two. He did pretty well, all things considered.

Meanwhile, the bigger issue is mounting some offense against Sandy Koufax Lannan. He has dominated the Yankees so far.

UPDATE, 8:38 p.m.: Hughes it is.

UPDATE, 9:06 p.m.: A-Rod really heard it from the crowd after the latest weak groundout. He is 0 for 3 tonight, 2 of 17 on the homestand, 4 of 35 and 8 of 51.

Lannan is throwing a gem.

UPDATE, 9:46 p.m.: It always seems to come down to Alex, doesn’t it?

Forget to mention this earlier … Not only was first-round pick Slade Heathcott in town, so is his agent. Darek Braunecker was talking with Brian Cashman after the game last night.

Slade will be leaving tomorrow morning. Could the Yankees get him signed quickly? Don’t bank on it. While Heathcott is expected to sign, the Yankees will want to hold him around slot and Braunecker will certainly expect the Yankees to come across with more than that.

It might not be the worse thing. Heathcott could use the time to further strengthen his surgically repaired knee.

“I’d love to get started,” he said. “But it might take some time. That’s sort of out of my hands at this point.”

Say this much for the Washington Nationals: They’re trying. The Nats are on the field now for early BP.

Then Tony Pena came out, had Frankie Cervelli set up next to a wall and hit him hard groundballs to simulate wild pitches. That Tony Pena, he’s a nice guy. But he’s crazy.

Meanwhile, our old pal Krazy Kyle Farnsworth got bit by his own dog. Every time you think the Yankees are having problems in the bullpen, remember this: It could be much, much worse.

Sam Borden’s latest SNY.TV column is on how the Yankees have to take care of business.

Finally, here are a few photos from Monument Park. It’s a very nice layout. But it’s just so strange that it’s under a sports bar and covered up with nets. The Yankees should have put the bullpens on two tiers in right field and placed Monument Park in left field where everybody could see it.

Meanwhile, there are black shades that get pulled down during games to cover up the plaques because they interfere with the vision of the batter. That seems a little weird. How could they have planned it that badly?

Don’t forget, my boy Mark Feinsand is a Twittering fool. Seriously, I sit next to him in the press box and he never stops.

I’m on Twitter, too. Follow PeteAbe.

It’s easy to lose track of Robinson Cano sometimes.

The Yankees have so many star players populating their roster that Cano can go overlooked. Then there nights like last night when you remember that this guy had the ability to be just as good as those star players. Maybe better.

Cano went 4 for 4 and drove in two runs including the game-winner. He also made three or four plays in the field that were outstanding, including one in the eighth inning.

Cano ranged far to his left to track down a ball off the bat of Ryan Zimmerman, turned his body and made a strong throw from an awkward angle to Mark Teixeira.

“That maybe saved us,” said Brian Bruney, who was pitching. “If he doesn’t make that play, they have two guys on and maybe something happens.”

At the plate, Cano smoked a double to center to give the Yankees the lead in the seventh inning. After A-Rod struck out with Teixeira on second, Cano belted a 2-2 pitch over the head of center fielder Elijah Dukes.

That was a long at-bat for him. Cano had first-pitch singles his first three times up. Cano’s annoys a lot of fans because he lacks patience. He seems to hack at whatever pitch is in the same zip code. But it works for him.

He’s hitting .467 when he puts the first pitch in play and .231 on three-ball counts. For him, patience is not a virtue.

“I just want something in the middle,” Cano said.

Middle inside? Middle away? Middle high?

“Just middle,” he said. “Something I can hit.”

Cano leads the Yankees with a .309 batting average. He’s second in doubles (16) and RBI (41). But a low on-base percentage (.339 thanks to 13 walks in 277 plate appearances) holds down his overall effectiveness. His greatest skill is the ability to put the bat on the ball. It’s also his greatest detriment.

Yogi Berra was the same way. He walked only 44 times in 594 plate appearances in his 1951 MVP season.

Cano is 26 and this would seem to be the time he starts to figure it out and becomes the consistent force the Yankees believe he can be. Every night is not going to be 4 for 4. But if you watched that game last night, you remembered just how good he can be.

Friend of the blog Jane Heller will be signing copies of her book Confessions of a She-Fan at Stan’s Bar across from the Stadium from 3:30-5:30 today.

It’s an amusing book about her season on the road with the Yankees and I’m not just saying that because she wrote nice things about me and the rest of the beat writers.

See Jane’s web site for more information on the book and how to get it.

The U.S. Open is at Bethpage Black this week and The Journal News is all over it.

Today at noon, go to our Pro Talk Live page for a video preview and live Q&A with Sam Borden and Mike Dougherty.

The preview and chat are sponsored by Friedrich.

Yankees career strikeouts

8. Bob Shawkey 1,163
9. Al Downing 1,028
10. Roger Clemens 1,014
11. Mariano Rivera 967
11. Allie Reynolds 967

The Yankees dodged what would have been an embarrassing loss as Robinson Cano’s double helped beat the Nationals 5-3 last night.

Chien-Ming Wang had a big day yesterday and hopes to have a big night tonight. This notebook also has updates on Brian Bruney, Jose Veras and Slade Heathcott.