Bronx, N.Y., June 3, 2008 — New York was abuzz all day Tuesday in anticipation of the first Yankee start of Joba Chamberlain, the passionate, young, hard chucker who has been hogging headlines in the back of the Yankee pen since last September. A debate has been raging whether his electric stuff could better serve the team every five days as a starter than it has in late relief. We all got our first look at start number one Tuesday. The fact that Toronto beat the Yanks 9-3 had very little to do, really, with how Joba performed.
The debut was not great, true. And with so many preliminary fears revolving around a pitch count that needed to be kept arbitrarily low, the veteran Blue Jays knew what they had to do. Joba missed with a 96 mph fastball to leadoff hitter Shannon Stewart, then went up 1-2 on a called strike and a foul. After one more off the plate, Stewart swung at a slider, and the crowd erupted in celebration. But Stewart had managed to get a piece of the ball, he worked the at bat four pitches longer, and then trotted to first on an eight-pitch walk. Thus it began, and the Toronto hitters had young Chamberlain’s toes to the fire from the very beginning.
Joba followed with a strike out of Marco Scutaro on a slider, but it took six more pitches. He was called for a balk before throwing a pitch to Alex Rios, and catcher Jose Molina let a slider get by him three throws later for a passed ball, with Stewart sprinting into third. Rios grounded out with a run crossing, then Scott Rolen grounded a single two strides to the left of first baseman Jason Giambi. There’s no denying that Chamberlain’s being in a small hole early was partially attributable to his defense. But that he followed with two six-pitch walks to load the bases with two down was his own doing. He struck Rod Barajas out to close a one-run, one-hit, three-walk, two-strike-out inning, but at 38 throws he had already spent more than half his night’s quota.
The mound opposition was Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay, but the Yankees replied with two runs, keyed by Johnny Damon’s leadoff triple to the right center field gap. He still stood at third after two quick outs, but A-Rod was hit by a pitch, and lefties Hideki Matsui and Giambi both followed with rbi singles the other way to left, and the Yanks were up 2-1.
Chamberlain had a one-two-three second, but a strike out and a liner to right after he fell behind 3-0 pushed his count to 54. Abreu flagged a Scutaro liner at the wall to start the third. Still, it was not a surprise that an ensuing four-pitch walk to Alex Rios ended Joba’s night. The Yanks brought in Dan Giese, who had left the AAA Scranton rotation to fill in just for this situation. Dan was unlucky early, but he ended up doing exactly what was needed of him.
The bad luck came on his first pitch, as Rios broke for second and Molina’s throw sailed into center with the Toronto center fielder taking third. He scored Toronto’s second run on a fielder’s choice grounder, and Geise got out of further trouble after a walk to DH Matt Stairs. The Jays challenged Geise again in the fourth, as a double and a single put runners at the corners. Melky Cabrera’s throw on a fly to medium center caught a bit of the pitcher’s mound, allowing Barajas to barely score what should have been Toronto’s second run, and it gave the visitors a 3-2 lead.
Geise has an interesting motion, similar in some fans’ minds to a guy throwing darts. He showed a high-eighties fastball and a mid-seventies slider, nothing like Joba’s hard heat and devastating breaking pitches. But despite allowing a hit-and-run single after the sac fly, he then retired six straight Blue Jays hitters. With help from Molina on a caught stealing amid two hits, he got the game through six with the Yanks still trailing just 3-2.
But baseball is a simple game, and if you expect to win, your pitcher has to throw the ball within the 17-inch width of home plate, and within the lower and higher ends of the zone. Chamberlain threw six first-pitch strikes to 12 batters, and his poor 32/30 strikes/balls ratio was the reason it took him 62 throws to retire just seven visitors. Though better, Geise’s ratio wasn’t good either at 36/29, and he found the zone on first pitches just seven times out of 16. It was largely the same problem that led to not only the Yankee loss, but to the ugly six-run margin.
Although the Yanks failed to score against Halladay again despite decent chances in the second, third, fifth, and sixth innings, they did battle him to a pitch count of 102 through six. “Doc” Halladay and Geise both retired after six with Toronto still up 3-2, but then the Yankee pen imploded. It can be argued that this was yet another loss resulting from Chamberlain’s removal from the pen, the fourth such loss by some fans’ accounting. But the fact is, the guys who came in for the seventh are the ones who would have pitched that frame whether Chamberlain was a reliever or a starter. They all struggled with their control, and Edwar Ramirez disastrously so.
Jose Veras started the inning by falling to three-ball counts to the first two batters, and they both singled. After striking out Rolen for the frame’s first out, he handed the ball to Edwar to face two lefties. Off to a great 2008 start, Ramirez allowed his first run on a home run in Minnesota over the weekend. Possessed of a dynamite change that flummoxes lefty batters, Ramirez could throw neither it nor his fastball for strikes. He walked the two lefties on nine pitches, gave up a two-run double to righty batter Barajas, then issued Wilkerson an intentional free pass. Latroy Hawkins replaced Ramirez and allowed a double, a walk, and a sac fly before finally finding his ground ball pitch, but it was too late and the six tallies gave Toronto a 9-2 lead.
As if to illustrate the evil of the Yankee moundmen’s ways, Blue Jays lefty Brian Tallet led off the home seventh in place of Halladay, and walked two, with one scoring for the 9-3 final score. Offensively, after wasting most of 15 hits in Minnesota Monday, the Yanks played Halladay tough, and forced him past 100 throws early enough to battle out a win. Damon had a great day, missing a cycle just by the home run. Matsui had two hits, as did Derek Jeter, who seems to be getting his stroke back. Molina’s mixed defensive day (passed ball, throwing error, but one caught stealing) was matched on offense. He made Halladay throw 17 pitches to retire him three times, but he blunted potential rallies with one of his two strike outs and with a double-play ground ball.
It was a thrilling night in the Bronx. The size of the almost 54,000-strong crowd was nothing new, but they brought lots of energy, even if Joba’s long first inning sapped much of it from them. It was a nice night with temps in the 70s and a pleasant breeze, but the sky was cloud-filled enough to deny us all the inspiring view of the moon rising out beyond the outfield wall. Interns working the graphics boards gave many a chuckle, as they had photoshopped mustaches onto the likenesses of both Damon and Giambi, who are growing them as their hitting improves. They also added one to Jason’s baby picture in this year’s feature where fans are invited to guess who the ballplayer is based on one of his earliest photos. And fans celebrated for and with Captain Jeter when the news was flashed that his ninth-inning single tied him for third all-time on the Yankees hit list with the one and only Mickey Mantle.
The Yankee fan of 2008 is more a grizzled veteran in many ways than the club has seen for more than a decade. Yes, the Canyon of Heroes parades stopped seven years ago, and the AL East flag, an annual rite of autumn, slipped from the team’s grasp one year back. But those hardships were small potatoes compared to this, the year the team bit the bullet, so to speak, and put the franchise’s fate in the arms of youngsters whose best days are [expected to be] ahead of them. Most were able to take the night’s disappointing outcome as the first step in a process. They have survived two months where Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy struggled to a combined 0-7 in 14 starts, with era’s of 9.00 and 7.41. Both are injured now, and no one was screaming for Joba to stretch his night longer. He is healthy and can dominate, and the fans know that.
In a few days it will be the six-month anniversary of singer/songwriter Dan Fogelberg’s untimely death. Echoing part of one verse of Dan’s song “Lessons Learned,” Yankee fans were able to view Joba’s first start in light of those that came before it from Hughes and Kennedy:
- Lessons learned are like
Bridges burned
You only need to cross them but once
Is the knowledge gained
Worth the price of the pain?
The Yankee fans who greeted Joba as he left Tuesday’s game with quiet cheers were clearly answering Fogelberg’s question, “Yes!”
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!