The rain dance worked and the Yankees got a night off on Monday. That's good on two fronts. It gives them a day off from stories about how empty their sparkling new stadium looks on television, and it made it easy for them to tell Chien-Ming Wang that he isn't making a start this week.
That doesn't mean there won't be meaningful pitching, however. Nothing's been announced, but it would make sense for Wang to throw a simulated game on Thursday's off-day. He has been dealing with so much adversity in his starts that slowing things down and having him throw 100 pitches could be very beneficial. Mechanical problems could be corrected in the moment, any physical issues can be closely examined and, above all else, Wang can just get some work in that may help him get back on track.
If such a session didn't go well, at least the Yankees would have more of an idea what they were dealing with, and a solid amount of time to figure out what to do next. Although his low strikeout rate gives reason to believe he'll decline quickly, his track record is good enough that there should be an answer to getting him back to a place where he's helping and not hurting the team.
For now, though, getting him off the mound is the best solution. Johnny Damon was brutally honest in the wake of Wang's disastrous Saturday start.
"We have six losses on the year right now and he's got three of them and in all three of those games, we've been blown out and had to go to our bullpen, so maybe our bullpen's not sharp the following days," Damon said. "I don't know what more to say, but hopefully he can figure it out, because it would be tough to keep going on like this."
That's about it in a nutshell. Wang has to get right or he is going to, deservedly, get replaced because the team can't carry a pitcher with a 30+ ERA.
