Chien-Ming Wang furthered his case on Wednesday, tossing 7 2/3 innings of shutout ball to lead the Yankees to a 2-0 victory over the Tigers in a matchup of the American League's two best teams. The game was the first in a day-night doubleheader.

"I knew he was good. How good? You don't know," pitching coach Ron Guidry said. "When you put a guy capable of pitching like he has with the stuff he has with the team he has here, he can be pretty deadly."

Wang improved to 16-5, tying him with Toronto's Roy Halladay for the Major League lead in wins. The right-hander allowed three hits, walked one and struck out three, getting 13 of his 23 outs via ground balls. The scoreless outing helped Wang lower his ERA from 3.81 to 3.66.

"I never think of that," Wang said of his Cy Young chances. "I don't look at my stats, just my pitches."

"I kept waiting to get a ball hit out to me," center fielder Johnny Damon said. "In the [eighth] inning, I finally got one."

Tigers starter Nate Robertson allowed 10 hits over seven innings, but he limited the Yankees to just a pair of runs. New York went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position, leaving 12 men on base.

"We had so many opportunities to do something, but Robertson is very tough," manager Joe Torre said. "He's a gamer; when he gets men in scoring position, he knows how to pitch. He made quality pitches in key situations."

Craig Wilson snapped a scoreless tie in the fifth, leading off the inning with a solo home run, his third since being acquired by the Yankees at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.

"It felt good; it got us the lead," Wilson said. "Wang went out there and pitched well and that's all we needed. Offensively, if you give him a couple runs, it seems like enough."

Damon followed with a walk, moved to third on Derek Jeter's single and scored on Jason Giambi's sacrifice fly, boosting the lead to 2-0. Wang, who had given up just one single over the first five innings, took care of the rest.

"You don't see people with his stuff that often," Jeter said. "He's real similar to Halladay in terms of throwing that heavy sinker. He goes after you; it's not like he's nibbling at the strike zone."

Wang used his trademark sinker to frustrate the Tigers, who made five groundball outs during the sixth and seventh innings.

"It looks like a four-seam fastball," Brandon Inge said. "You know it's a sinker, so you go to swing at it and you're swinging low for the four-seam, and the thing just goes plop."

"It's like trying to hit a bowling ball," Guidry said. "The sinker he's throwing is so heavy, and it moves so late that guys just beat it into the ground."

Wang came back out for the eighth, but he found himself in his first and only jam of the game. He walked Neifi Perez with one out and served up a two-out double to Curtis Granderson.

With the tying runs in scoring position, Scott Proctor came in from the bullpen, getting pinch-hitter Magglio Ordonez to fly out to left field on the first pitch, preserving the lead.

"I thought he'd be swinging," Proctor said. "A guy like that, he's looking to drive the guys in, not necessarily to drive the ball out of the park. I executed and thank goodness he swung."

Mariano Rivera closed out the win with a scoreless ninth, earning his 32nd save.

Wang and his sinker have five or six starts remaining this season, giving him a shot at a 20-win season in his second year in the Majors.

"He throws 95 miles per hour, it sinks two feet and it's heavy; when that's your approach and it's that simple, your game plan doesn't have to change," Mike Mussina said. "Throw the heavy sinker and get 15 ground balls a game. It's never seemed as easy as he's made it look."

Wang will face stiff competition in this year's Cy Young race, as Halladay, Johan Santana and Justin Verlander have all posted impressive seasons. But neither Wang nor Torre are concerned with the year-end award; they have a bigger prize in mind.

"He's been very important for us," Torre said. "I think if he had a choice of winning that award or getting to the World Series, he'd choose the World Series. That's our goal right now, and we still have plenty of work ahead of us."