The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox by a score of 7-3. Joba Chamberlain lost the game and gave up 4 earned runs on 6 hits in 5.2 innings of work for the loss. He also recorded 12 strikeouts. I didn’t want to write this. I felt like going to bed after the Yankees lost to the Red Sox, again. If we could only take away Joba’s first inning. In the first inning, Joba’s pitches were out over the plate and belt high. The three run home run he served to Jason Bay was out over the plate. He missed the location on the pitch. Molina was looking for the ball away and Joba pitched it right down the middle. After the first inning however, Joba Chamberlain turned into a pitching, god. This had to be his most dominant start of his career. He threw more change ups in this game then he has ever thrown. He was framing his fastball great and most of his strikeouts came with the Red Sox batters looking. He had a good curveball as well. As the game wore on, his velocity got better. He was using all 4 of his pitches great. His fastball was awesome as was his slider, curveball and his change up. It’s tough to hit a pitcher who’s throwing 96 mph with off speed pitches like Joba has. The Yankees’ relievers did a bad job. They issued 5 walks in total. Phil Coke and Mariano Rivera seem to be the only relievers that Joe Girardi trusts. Every one else in the bull pen is a real flip of the coin. You can call on a reliever and he’ll give you a great outing every now and then but you just don’t know what you’re going to get on a day to day basis. If you look at all the relievers Joe Girardi used tonight, most of them are from Scranton/Wilkes Barre 2008. They need time. They will get better. They did great in Scranton and I expect them to do well in the major leagues. Remember, Scranton was the International League Champion last year. Besides Johnny Damon’s home run, the Yankees didn’t get much production from their offense especially their 3-to-6th guys. They went 2-for-15 with no runs scored and no RBI. Maybe we do need A-Rod back.
