Chien-Ming Wang and the long road back

Hello, FB. I would like to introduce myself.  I am Branta, a Yankee fan. Thus it might be a little unusual for me to be posting here at all, being a blog about the Nationals and all. As Abraham said, "I am a stranger in a strange land."  However, Chien-Ming Wang, current Nationals pitcher and project, was once the Yankees ace, so I was interested in his progress back from injury. I would like to see him make his way back to the big leagues soon and see him succeed.  I happen to be down in Woodbridge, VA this weekend for the 4th of July holiday to visit my brother and his fiancee.  As luck would have it, Wang was making what I believe to be his second rehab start (I could be mistaken) for the P-Nats.  I'm no baseball scout, but I thought you might want a first hand account of the evening.

Wang's first batter set an ominous tone for the day, working a favorable count, fouling off some pitches, and then lofting a ball that thankfully was caught out before the warning track.  The next two outs of the inning, however, were recorded on the next two pitches.  The strong Taiwanese (not sure if that's the proper term) turnout were very happy to see this.

For the next two innings, Wang did not pitch with a favorable count once, falling behind early.  His first walk was erased by a double play thanks to a tremendous effort by Francisco Soriano at short, diving to save a base hit. He then walked another batter, but was able to get out of the inning with a shallow fly ball to center.

In the bottom of the third, the P-Nats got Wang a 2-0 lead. When he came back to the mound, his confidence finally seemed to come with him, and he turned in his best inning.  The 4th wound up being his last.

His final line for the night was 4.0 IP, 1 hit, 2 BB, 2 K, 0 ER.