Yankees ride Wang's complete game to beat White Sox

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The New York Yankees beat the slumping Chicago White Sox for the second straight time on Wednesday, riding Chien-Ming Wang's complete game to a comfortable 5-1 victory.

The win was the fifth in the last seven games for the Yankees, who expect to be bolstered by the return of Roger Clemens on Saturday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Clemens, who signed a pro-rated $28 million free agent deal to come back to the Yanks, was originally supposed to start the opener of the series in Chicago, but was pushed back because of a groin problem.

The victory lifted the Yankee record to 26-31, and put them to within 10 games of the Boston Red Sox.

"We're feeling pretty good," centerfielder Johnny Damon, who had two doubles, told reporters. "It's fun when things start going your way."

Wang (5-4) pitched New York's first complete game of the season and the third of his career, as he tossed a five-hitter and sent the White Sox to their seventh loss in the last eight games.

The Taiwanese right-hander, who needed just 104 pitches to get the job done, is 4-1 with a 2.50 ERA his last five starts and the complete game marked the Yanks' first complete-game win since Wang did it on July 28 last year.

"He was great," New York manager Joe Torre told reporters. "That pitch count, it doesn't come any better than that, that's for sure."

Alex Rodriguez drove in two runs in a four-run fourth inning and Bobby Abreu hit a solo homer to carry the New York offense that made a loser of former Yankee Javier Vasquez

(3-4).

The win was the 1,999th of Torre's managerial career.

*The Oakland Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox for the third straight night, winning 3-2 as Boston lost its fourth straight and sixth in the last seven games. Santiago Casilla earned his first Major League save.

*The visiting Detroit Tigers hammered the last-place Texas Rangers 10-0 as Gary Sheffield hit two of his team's four homers, the 469th and 470th of his career, and drove in five runs.

*The Minnesota Twins slowed down the hot Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim with an 8-5 road victory as Kevin Slowey recorded his first Major League win.