NEW YORK -- Chien-Ming Wang and Robinson Cano helped the Yankees break out of their funk last season, energizing the ballclub with superb rookie seasons. The pair was back at it on Tuesday.
Wang pitched 7 1/3 shutout innings, while Cano provided the only run of the game with a sixth-inning home run, as the Yankees defeated the Indians, 1-0, to snap their four-game losing streak.
The win, combined with Boston's late walk-off loss to the Twins, put the Yankees back into a tie with the Red Sox for first place in the American League East.
"We've made our mark here," said manager Joe Torre. "For an organization that really didn't rely on the farm system, these two kids have really made a difference from last year to this year."
Entering Tuesday's game, New York and Cleveland had each scored 359 runs, tops in the Majors. But Wang and Paul Byrd made the two lineups look like a bunch of slap hitters, holding the teams to a combined 11 hits, eight of which were singles.
"Pitching can control the hitting when you have two pitchers who do what they did tonight," Torre said.
Staring at the four-game losing streak, the Yankees sent Wang to the mound in search of a solid performance. Wang, who never seems fazed regardless of the circumstances, said he felt no additional pressure when he took the ball Tuesday.
"I don't think about that," Wang said. "I try to stay the same; just pitch."
"He just goes out there and just goes about his business," Jorge Posada said. I don't think he gets caught up in what's going on."
The Yankees had chances in each of the first three innings, leaving six men on base, including three in scoring position. Alex Rodriguez (0-for-4, three strikeouts) and Cano each had two chances in those innings, but Byrd retired them both times.
A-Rod was booed each time he came to the plate, as well as each time he recorded an out. Rodriguez, who won Player of the Month honors in May, is mired in a 4-for-32 (.125) slump in June with no extra-base hits and just one RBI.
"He's booing himself, too," Torre said. "He's fighting it right now, and I don't have an answer for him other than to pat him on the rear end. He's going to have to fight his way out of it; there's no place else to go. I trust it will happen; whether it's tomorrow or the next day, I don't know that."
"That's what happens to everyone, man," Derek Jeter said. "That's all you can say. We won the game. That's all we were trying to do."
Wang didn't give the Indians nearly as many opportunities, allowing three singles through the first five innings. Wang recorded eight ground-ball outs and three popups in that span, striking out three. Only Travis Hafner hit a fly ball to the outfield in the first five frames.
"[Wang's] a lot of fun, because you can call any pitch and you know where it's going to be," said Posada. "When he's like that and he's got his arm angle up, it's a lot of fun to see."
"He has a great sinker, a heavy ball," said Aaron Boone, who had two of Cleveland's five hits. "That was about the best sinker we've seen this year. He was tough, no doubt about it."
Cleveland had its first real scoring chance in the sixth, as Grady Sizemore led off with a double off the wall in center field. Casey Blake flew out to Kevin Thompson in right field, as Thompson made a great catch. The Yankees intentionally walked Hafner, then Wang got Victor Martinez to ground into a 4-6-3 double play, ending the inning.
"Posada told me not to throw it in the middle," Wang said. "[He wanted me to] stay outside."
"Every time we get a guy on base, we're looking for that double play," Cano said. "We have to be ready, because we get a lot of ground balls."
Cano rewarded Wang in the bottom of the inning, blasting a one-out solo home run to right field, snapping the scoreless tie. It was Cano's fourth homer of the season.
"When you have a guy like Wang pitching that kind of game, you want to come out and get him some runs," Cano said. "I was looking for a strike and he made a mistake."
"I tried to locate it down and away and make a good pitch and not overthrow it," Byrd said. "But I hung it. He did what he should have with that hanging curveball."
Wang pitched into the eighth, getting one out before Torre lifted him for Mike Myers, who retired Sizemore. Kyle Farnsworth got the final out of the inning, handing the one-run lead over to Mariano Rivera, who retired three straight Indians after Andy Phillips' error to start the ninth put the tying run on base.
"Huge," Rivera said. "We needed this one. Big."
"Momentum shifts so often during the season," Torre said. "A loss during the season isn't like it is in the postseason, but I still hate going home after losing. I hate waking up in the morning after losing. You're looking forward now instead of at what you did a few days ago."