Yanks make Wang AL's first to six wins Unbeaten righty ends three-game slide behind early offense

NEW YORK -- Chien-Ming Wang gave the Yankees what they have so sorely needed in recent days -- a quality start from a quality pitcher.
The right-hander scattered three hits and allowed one run in six innings on Friday, and Melky Cabrera drove in two runs to help the Yankees post a 5-1 victory over the Mariners at Yankee Stadium and snap their three-game losing streak. The win improved Wang to 6-0, making him the American League's first six-game winner this season.

Against Seattle, a team he was nearly perfect against last May 5 in retiring his first 22 batters, Wang tossed five scoreless innings before Ichiro Suzuki manufactured Seattle's lone run in the sixth. Ichiro singled and then stole a pair of bases before coming home on Raul Ibanez's infield groundout.

Since Wang made his last start, on Sunday at Cleveland, no Yankees pitcher had been able to go at least six innings while allowing three runs or fewer. Wang drew attention to the mound with one out in the fifth inning for a potential problem on his pitching hand, calling catcher Jose Molina out to the mound, but he remained in the game.

The Yankees took advantage of some sloppy Mariners defense, which committed four errors through the first three innings. Facing Mariners left-hander Erik Bedard, Derek Jeter reached on an error by shortstop Rafael Betancourt, moved up on a Bobby Abreu single and then scored on Hideki Matsui's RBI single to left.

The run was the 1,391st of Jeter's career, giving him sole possession of fourth place on the Yankees' all-time list, and the single extended Matsui's hitting streak to 12 games.

New York tacked on two more in the second. Morgan Ensberg reached on an error by third baseman Adrian Beltre and moved to second when he was caught stealing but second baseman Jose Lopez dropped the ball. Cabrera brought Ensberg and Alberto Gonzalez home on two-run double to left, staking the Yankees to a 3-0 lead.