Sunday, September 20, 2009

Joba Gets Jacked, Bats Go Silent

So much for the 5 innings. So much for the hitch in his delivery. Joba Chamberlain was flat out awful this afternoon, not getting around it. He stumbled out of the gate in the first inning before falling flat on his face in the second.

Joba actually retired the first two batters he faced in the bottom of the first but then allowed back to back doubles to Jose Lopez and Ken Griffey and then an RBI single to Adrian Beltre.

He went the opposite way in the 2nd, allowing two singles to begin the frame. The Mariners gave away an out via a sac bunt and then the Yanks gave away a baserunner by intentionally walking Ichiro to load the bases. I didn't work out as planned because Joba forced in a run when he walked Franklin Gutierrez after the count went full. Jose Lopez followed with a sacrifice fly to put the Yanks up 4-0. Joba got ahead 0-2 on Griffey, but left a fastball on the inside part of the plate which Griffey blasted to left for a no-doubt, three run jack.

Joba came back out and worked a scoreless third inning but that was all for him, after throwing 69 pitches in what, ERA-wise was his worst outing of the season.

It was a frustrating day at the plate as well. Ian Snell didn't pitch particularly well, distributing four hits and four walks over 5 1/3 IP and only striking out two, needing 105 pitches to do it. He only gave up one run though, as the Yanks mustered only one hit with runners in scoring position of of six attempts against him.

In it's any consolation (and it probably isn't) Sergio Mitre pitched brilliantly in relief of Joba, throwing 5 scoreless innings allowing only one hit and one walk while striking out 5. Mark Teixeira also added two doubles and was driven in by Jorge Posada in his return from his suspension for the Yanks' only run in the 6th inning.

It probably seems bad at the moment, but the Yanks are off to a far more important series in Anaheim in terms of perceived postseason implications. There will be much stuff to overreact to when the next three games come around.

2 comments:

  1. Sucks not having any pitching huh? The Yankees will make the playoffs... which will just give them another chance to choke and embarrass themselves on a national stage. To the delight of everyone in the country who isn't from NY.

    Get ready for all the "$200M payroll and _this_ is what they get????" stories. Should be fun! :-)

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  2. No pitching, huh? Yeah it's really terrible that Burnett and Sabathia just posted back to back dominant starts right before Joba's bad outing. But no need to take that into consideration. Just drop by when something bad happens and use lots of extra punctuation!!!!!

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