NEW YORK -- With Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield sidelined by injury, the Yankees' offense was missing two of its most important cogs on Friday night.

The way Chien-Ming Wang pitched against the A's, it didn't make much of a difference.

Wang shut Oakland out over eight innings, while Alex Rodriguez gave the right-hander all the run support he would need, drilling a solo home run.

The end result was a 2-0 win for the Yankees, who bounced back with a crisp game after losing a tough one to the Red Sox on Thursday.

"It was nice to bounce back," Rodriguez said. "Wang was the star of the day. He threw the ball incredibly; the best he's thrown all year. It was refreshing to have a well-played game on both sides."

Wang allowed three hits and walked two batters, but he induced four double plays, facing just one batter over the minimum.

"It was a great pitching performance," said Johnny Damon. "One this team seriously needed."

Barry Zito pitched a gem of his own, giving up one run over six innings, his only mistake coming in the sixth when A-Rod drilled a 1-0 pitch over the wall in left-center field. Zito, who is 1-1 with a 0.87 ERA in his last three starts, allowed five hits and walked four, striking out four.

"When you looked at the matchup, Wang against Zito, it didn't seem like it favored us," Torre said. "To have a game that close, pitching against Barry Zito, you have to be impressed. Wang needed one like this."

Wang was as efficient as ever, facing three batters in each of the first five innings. He got plenty of help from his infielders, as Robinson Cano and Andy Phillips made some tremendous plays on the right side of the diamond.

It wasn't until the sixth inning that Oakland even left a man on base, as Wang erased baserunners with double plays in the second, third and fifth innings.

"He lost the strike zone a time or two, but every time he got a man on, he got the ground ball for double plays," Torre said. "He was in so much command tonight."

With the game still scoreless in the sixth, A-Rod crushed a 1-0 changeup from Zito over the wall in left-center field. The homer was the second in three games for A-Rod, both of which accounted for the game-winning run.

"It was a game-winning home run; it always feels good to do that," Rodriguez said. "The way both guys were throwing, you got the feeling that one run would be the difference -- and it was."

"I don't know if he was sitting on it or what, but he stayed on that ball real well," Zito said. "It wasn't so much a bad pitch, but maybe bad pitch selection."

In his last nine games, Rodriguez has three homers and 10 RBIs, including game-winning hits against the Devil Rays, Red Sox and A's.

"Over the last 10 days, my RBIs have all been very important, going back to the Tampa hit," Rodriguez said. "It's pretty cool."

"We're all pleased for him because it's helping us, but more importantly, it's going to help him help us," Torre said. "He fights himself a lot, so a couple of big, go-ahead home runs have to do a world for his confidence."

Wang made the run stand up, pitching the seventh and eighth without any problems. Of the 24 outs Wang recorded, 20 came on ground balls, mostly the result of sinkers and sliders with plenty of late movement. Of Wang's 85 pitches, only five of them were swinging strikes.

"Any time that Wang pitches, as an infielder, you know it's going to be an active day out there," A-Rod said. "He had 20 ground-ball outs; that's incredible."

Bernie Williams added a solo home run against Randy Keisler in the eighth, giving New York an insurance run.

Mariano Rivera tossed a scoreless ninth to record his seventh save of the season.

"You have to figure this is the type of game we're going to have to win," Torre said. "We're going to have to get used to playing close games, so the more we do it, the less strange it's going to appear."