updated 11:44 p.m. ET May 12, 2006

NEW YORK - Chien-Ming Wang left the Oakland Athletics in the dust, making them hit pitch after pitch into the ground.

In their first game following Hideki Matsui’s injury, the New York Yankees didn’t need much offense, beating the Oakland Athletics 2-0 Friday night behind eight stifling innings by Wang and home runs by Alex Rodriguez and Bernie Williams.

“He threw the ball incredible,” Rodriguez said. “That’s the best he’s thrown all year.”

Matsui had surgery Friday to repair his left wrist, broken Thursday night when he tried for a diving catch against Boston. The left fielder will be sidelined for at least three months.

“We know we don’t have Matsui, but again, it’s not going to take away from our resolve and what we need to do,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said. “We’re going to have to pull together and get this thing accomplished and, hopefully, tonight was step one.”

Helped by four double plays, Wang (3-1) put together the best of his 25 career starts, never allowing a runner past first as he defeated Barry Zito (2-3). Mixing his fastball with sinkers and sliders, he gave up three singles, walked two and struck out none, getting 20 outs on grounders.

“He’s one of the toughest pitchers we’ve faced this year,” said Mark Ellis, who grounded out three times against Wang. “He’s got so much movement on his fastball. Tonight, he was locating his fastball real well.”

Wang was backed by some dandy defense. Second baseman Robinson Cano backhanded Adam Melhuse’s grounder near second leading off the eighth, and made a strong, leaping throw from the edge of the outfield grass for the out. Andy Phillips made several nice stops at first.

Torre said he would have left Wang in for the ninth with a four-run lead or perhaps even three. With a lesser margin, Mariano Rivera came in for the third straight night.

Pitching with a cold, he walked Marco Scutaro with one out, allowed a single to Ellis and fell behind in the count 2-0 to Nick Swisher, who took a big cut and missed. Swisher then ended the game by grounding into Oakland’s fifth double play, giving Rivera his seventh save in eight chances.

“I was 150 percent sure he was going to throw a cutter, and he did. The 2-1 moved a lot more than the 2-0 did,” Swisher said. “Second time I’ve faced him, great situation to be in, and he made me ground into a double play. His cutter, it’s a heat-seeker, and it aims for handles, aims at nothing but handles of bats.”

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Rodriguez, booed in his first two at-bats after striking out, pulled Zito’s changeup over the wall in left-center, near the 399-foot sign, leading off the sixth inning. Before the homer, Rodriguez was hitting .210 (13-for-62) in his career against Zito — including a grand slam in New York’s season-opening 15-2 win at Oakland.

“It was down and away. It was right where I wanted it to be,” Zito said. “It was more bad selection than a bad pitch.”

It was A-Rod’s second go-ahead homer in three nights.

“I’m taking a very aggressive approach,” he said. “My hands are coming alive.”

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