NEW YORK -- Chien-Ming Wang's bid to join Don Larsen, David Wells and David Cone in the annals of Yankees lore ended in the eighth inning on Saturday, with a well-earned standing ovation and a series of dugout handshakes serving as a consolation prize.
In a matinee performance at Yankee Stadium, Wang retired the first 22 Mariners batters he faced before Ben Broussard broke up the right-hander's chances for perfection, slugging a home run to right-center field.
Denied the third regular-season perfect game in Yankees history, Wang instead settled for eight innings of one-run, two-hit ball in his first victory of the season, an 8-1 win over the Mariners.
The Yankees provided Wang, who walked none and struck out four, with ample cushion for the effort in a lengthy sixth inning, batting around. During the frame, Wang, still embroiled in the perfect-game bid, was left alone on the dugout bench, his right arm draped in a towel and his teammates seated nowhere near him.
Staked to a 1-0 lead by Bobby Abreu's sacrifice fly in the third inning, Hideki Matsui brought home the Yankees' second run in the sixth in painful fashion, as he was hit in the right thigh with the bases loaded by a suddenly erratic Jeff Weaver, the Mariners' starter.
Jorge Posada followed with an RBI single to center and, after a strikeout and fielder's choice, Weaver walked in a run by issuing a free pass to Melky Cabrera. The Yankees broke the game open on Derek Jeter's two-run double to left field, extending the Yankees' lead to six runs as Weaver exited, having allowed six runs and nine hits in 5 2/3 innings, walking three and fanning three.
Coincidentally, Wang's performance came on the 103rd anniversary of the first perfect game in Major League history. On May 5, 1904, Cy Young pitched a perfect game for the Boston Americans against the Philadelphia Athletics.
This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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