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By Agence France-Presse
NEW YORK--Taiwanese pitcher Chien-Ming Wang flirted with a no-hitter here Thursday as the New York Yankees completed a three-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox with a 5-0 victory.
Wang took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and the Yankees insured they will maintain at least a tie with the Seattle Mariners in the American League wild card race.
The Yankees also narrowed the gap on American League East division leaders Boston to five games.
Wang, 27, yielded just four walks through six frames before finally seeing his no-hit bid end in an interesting top of the seventh inning.
Kevin Youkilis led off with a grounder to shortstop Derek Jeter, who short-hopped a throw to first base that forced first baseman Jason Giambi off the bag. The play was ruled an error and the no-hitter remained intact.
Two pitches later, Wang's bid for the first Yankee no-hitter since David Cone's perfect game in 1999 ended as Mike Lowell extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a single to right field.
After Lowell's base hit, the events at Yankee Stadium really became interesting.
J.D. Drew hit a grounder to third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who attempted to tag Youkilis before the Boston first baseman ran out of the baseline.
Rodriguez recovered to throw out Drew at first and, after voicing his displeasure about Youkilis' route to third, the umpires conferred before deciding to call Youkilis out.
Youkilis stormed off the field and Boston manager Terry Francona argued before being ejected by second base umpire Derryl Cousins.
After play resumed, Wang finished his 103-pitch outing by striking out Jason Varitek.
It was the second straight game the Yankees flirted with history. On Wednesday, Roger Clemens took a no-hitter into the sixth before allowing a solo home run to David Ortiz.
In that contest, he got some unexpected defensive help from Giambi and, in this one, Wang had some similar assistance. Giambi helped complete a 5-4-3 double play in the second inning and made a nice stop on Dustin Pedroia's groundout to end the third.
The Yankees did not pound Curt Schilling, who allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings. But two of those hits were solo home runs by Robinson Cano, who hit an 85-mph fastball over the left-center field fence in the third and a drilled a first-pitch splitter to a similar spot in the fifth.
That was enough for Wang, who despite tying a season worst with four walks, finished with five strikeouts and also recorded 10 outs on the ground.
New York's rookie reliever Joba Chamberlain was ejected by home plate umpire Angel Hernandez at the start of the ninth when he unleashed two fastballs over the head of Youkilis.
Edwar Ramirez came on to seal the final three outs for New York, which record its first sweep of the Red Sox at home since June 29-July 1, 2004.
