The New York Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins by a score of 6-5 because of a walk off home run by Alex Rodriguez in the bottom of the 11th inning. Starting for the Yankees was Joba Chamberlain and he gave up two earned runs on three hits in six innings of work for the no decision. Alfredo Aceves got the win. I was shocked that A-Rod came through. I really thought he was going to choke in that situation. Maybe some people are right when they say that this is really his spring training. I thought he had enough at bats to start hitting better than what he was and do you know what? He did have enough at bats because that home run was perfect. He’s back. He should be hitting much better from here on out. Mark Teixeira has been coming through time and time again lately. I don’t know what those Texas Ranger fans are talking about saying that he doesn’t come through in the clutch. He’s Mr. Clutch. With two outs in the bottom of the third with two men on, he took a 2-Seam Fastball from Nick Blackburn and deposited it over right-center field. That’s about as clutch as you can get. He also went four for four on the day. Joba simulated the first three batters of the game in the bull pen. It was perfect for his mind set to get ready. Joba had a real tight spin on his slider. He was throwing it right over the plate and it locked up the batters. Joba likes to throw his slider on 3-2 counts. His slider had a perfect spin and it’s hard to hit when it’s out of the zone especially when Joba is throwing his fastball at 95 mph. His fastball had great life on it and it was running in on the corners to batters. It had great velocity at 95 mph through out the game. Joba was commanding the inside part of the plate and that’s why he was getting batters to look at his sliders and not swing for strike three. When you throw to the inside part of the plate at 95 mph, it opens up the outside part of the plate. What makes Joba special as a pitcher is his innate ability to get out of jams with good pitches. He makes quality pitches when he needs to whether it’s his slider down and in or whether he’s painting his fastball away. When Joe Mauer hit Joba’s fastball that was right out over the plate, you would think that Joba might lose confidence in his fastball and start throwing his secondary pitches more but he didn’t. He even reached 97 mph on the radar gun after he gave up the home run. The greatest strategy Joba used today was mixing up his pitches. Through the first time through the order, he would start batters out with his fastball and try striking them out with his slider. Through the second time through the order, he was starting batters out with his slider and striking them out with his fastball. That’s a sign of a good pitcher. When Joba was a reliever, all he needed was two pitches because he wouldn’t see batters two times through the order. All he had was a fastball and a slider. Now he developed a great change up and he was throwing it down and away to left-handed batters and he was effective. He has confidence in his change up and it had a little fade to it. Today Joba had a wicked Curve ball that reached upper 70’s to mid 80’s with a 10-15″ break, he topped out at 97 with his 4-Seam Fastball, his Slider was in the mid 80’s with a 10″ break and his Change Up was at 80 mph with a 10″ break. He had good variance. Jose Veras has great velocity but no control. Phil Coke is great but he might be being used too much. Alfredo Aceves has four different pitches and he can play the long man role perfectly. He was a starter in the minors. Mariano is Mariano. Player of the Game: Alex Rodriguez. The home run he hit was magnificent.
