NY Daily News/Feinsand: Don’t blame Wang for National disaster

Chien-Ming Wang did his job tonight.

I know that won’t be a popular thing to say to Yankees fans right now as they deal with the humiliation of losing a game to the Nationals, but it’s true. Wang gave up three runs in five innings, and if not for a terrible call by the first-base ump in the fifth, it probably would have been two runs in five, possibly allowing him to come back out for the sixth.

Was it vintage Wang? No. Was it much closer to vintage Wang than anything we’ve seen this year? Absolutely. For that reason alone, he deserves to remain in the rotation. As long as he doesn’t take a huge step backwards and get lit up in his next start, this is likely going to be his spot for the foreseeable future.

Wang used his sinker effectively, getting 10 ground ball outs in five innings. Three of the five hits he gave up were seeing-eye grounders (the other three were very hard-hit balls, but every pitcher gives up some of those) and he only walked one batter unintentionally. More important, he looked much more confident, like the silent assassin that mowed down the rest of the AL from 2006-08 before his foot injury sidetracked him.

Girardi said it was “pretty safe to say” that Wang would get the ball again on Tuesday in Atlanta, though the manager wanted to review a tape of the game before making any official announcements.